The Wytches - Annabel Dream Reader
- Written by Lee Hammond
The Wytches have crept up on a lot of us, having endlessly toured the UK supporting a variety of bands, they’re currently touring with The Growlers. We’re now in possession of their long awaited debut LP Annabel Dream Reader, being released on Heavenly Records home of former touring partners Charlie Boyer and The Voyeurs.
The album itself opens with their first ever single ‘Digsaw’ a rather raucous number, that fits somewhere between punk and garage. It’s an opener, which sets out the blueprint for the album to follow, hefty guitars and what feels like a particularly dark tone in between the bursts of energy.
There’s a rapturous pace to the album as lead singer Kristian screams and screeches his way through tracks. During the points where he’s not screeching, his voice sounds strained particularly evident in parts of ‘Gravedweller’, a track which again maintains the solid blueprint of a dark tone with a fresh helping of strained vocals.
‘Burn Out The Bruise’ seems to deviate somewhat at the beginning as Kristian’s vocals are softer and dare we say it slightly sweeter than previous tracks. However, this doesn’t last long before he’s back to his screeching, don’t get us wrong in the context of this album its not a bad thing. The aforementioned blueprint for the album is being held in the highest regard by the band.
‘Wire Frame Mattress’ though seems to change it up a little, the tone remains the same but the vocals are more akin to that of someone like Ty Segall. There is also a rather brilliant solo that goes some way to show off how talented these guys are. Its an intense jam but beautifully executed arguably one of the stand out tracks on the album.
Kristian seems to deviate away from the aforementioned blueprint, from ‘Weights and Ties’ onwards. He almost turns into a crooner, as the majority of the dense instrumentation is dropped allowing the vocals to take over, whilst his lyrics maybe filled with angst his delivery tempers it somewhat creating a beautiful balance.
Similarly ‘Summer Again’ there’s a deeper pain in his voice, there’s a particularly dark tone to the track but the track draws you in and holds you in its grip. This level of intensity and intrigue is carried through into ‘Robe For Juda’ where it seems to be back to the heavier side in part but the vocals are given precedent and still sound much clearer than they do in the earlier part of the album.
The final track on the album simply titled ‘Track 13’ again sees The Wytches stripped back, even more so than ‘Weights and Ties.’ It’s the perfect close to what has otherwise been a roller coaster journey through the world of Annebel Dream Reader.
The album is very much in two parts; there is a definitive blueprint that the former part of the album follows. However, the latter is much more interesting as the band is stripped back and Kristian’s vocals are somewhat more varied. Overall its an album which we believe would be best heard live, having seen The Wytches live we can confirm that they’re a particularly exciting in the live arena.