Baths : Gut

Will Wiesenfeld, aka Baths, has been making intricate, emotionally raw, and pop-leaning albums for 15 years starting with his debut Cerulean in 2010. His music tows the line between electronic pop and experimental music as Wiesenfeld covers viscerally raw and emotional lyrics under layers of tactile percussion and light synths. You listen to a Baths album and you’re instantly pulled in by the melodies and crisp production, but you stick around for the painfully honest lyrics and at times unworldly sounds and otherworldly songs.

The last Baths album was 2017s Romaplasm, an album that saw Wiesenfeld expanding Baths’ sound with strings and horns while still retaining that delicate balance between open book and TMI. 8 years later and Baths finally returns with the excellent Gut. The scale has been pulled back a bit, giving Gut a more indie rock sound. More guitar, live drums, and a looser band feel, Gut sees Baths in a better place emotionally. I guess that happens when we get older. You see the world much differently at 35 than you do at 20.

“Eyewall” opens the album on crystalline keys and a driving synth track. Wiesenfield’s vocals waver between the understated sound of Sufjan Stevens and the dramatic dizziness of Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes. A drama school undergrad leaving it all on the opening night stage. And that’s what’s made Baths such an engaging and endearing ride all these years, that Wiesenfeld isn’t afraid to go there. Single “Sea Of Men” has an almost indie folk sound with drums, acoustic guitar, and subdued keys accompanying the alto vocals and all their tasteful layers.

Elsewhere the mysterious “Eden” has the more classic Baths sound, frenetic electronics zoom by in a flurry of dance floor intentions(“I am what he’ll be drinking/I’m a spring“). “Cedar Stairwell” is a gorgeous ballad; a moment where things become in full focus and a spot where Baths can settle into contemplation. “Chaos” sounds like a musical carnival, digging into those Of Montreal vibes full force, while closer “The Sound of a Blooming Flower” ends things on a melancholy note, bringing to mind Radiohead’s “Daydreaming”. It ends in a fury of sound.

Will Wiesenfeld, aka Baths, seems to have come full circle on Gut. Writing songs from a position of “act first, think later” and coming up with something rawer yet more mature. Sure of himself as he gets older. The drama of the 20s has been replaced with the calm reserve of someone nearing middle age. Gut is a less a midlife crisis, and more a midlife realization of one’s mortality.