Review Summary: A gorgeous mishmash of genres held together by evil, horny, queer energy
Baths (Will Wiesenfeld) has always excelled at detailing carnal, lustful, yet emotionally-layered gay relationships in his lyrics. One couplet that has stuck with me to this day is from “Incompatible” on his 2013 album
Obsidian: “On the nights you roll over and introduce yourself / Nurse this erection back to full health”. It’s powerful, raw songwriting, and if you’re the type of gay man that he tells his stories about, it will definitely stick with you too.
Gut is easily Baths’ best work since
Obsidian, and it also feels like a spiritual successor in that its main goal is to paint an honest picture of modern queer relationships. Sex is still a second language in Will’s songwriting – the punctuating statement from
Gut’s “Governed” is “I *** without honesty”, but earlier in the album on “Eden” he sings “I am for him to swim in / I‘m the sweat pressed on his tits / Slip into my ellipsis”. I don’t know, that feels pretty honest to me.
So is it all a front, is sex purely a bargaining chip? On “Cedar Stairwell”, the hopeful, head-above-the-clouds midpoint of the record, he imagines domestic bliss: “Thе dream isn't wild, it isn't new / It soothes and alludes to being two American grooms”. I can’t imagine 2013 Baths singing this unironically, demonstrating that there’s clearly been some maturing in the past decade.
The poetry of Will’s lyrics can easily be overlooked when coupled with such whimsical (yet challenging) instrumental collages – I can only best describe it as a mishmash of genres held together by evil, horny, queer energy.
The rhythmically-complex synth work on “Homosexuals” skitters with anxiety, but is grounded by its guitar riff and string section, which act as the song’s calming blood flow. It’s like a nervous lover being embraced by his steadfast counterpart. “Chaos” presents a more euphoric variant of Baths’ electronica tapestry, and its skipping-through-a-field synths and guitar work perfectly underscore the lyrical story of a promising new sexual encounter.
The album finishes with a giant, sweeping crescendo of a song, the monumental “The Sound of a Blooming Flower”, and of course
Gut leaves you with one final powerful lyrical assertion: “Some beauty just annihilates.” Well yes… yes it does.
