I have often associated certain kinds of music, and sometimes specific artists, with seasons. The Church has always been more about autumn than anything else. This was probably more due to the fact that I got turned onto the Church and their album, Starfish, during marching band season, but there’s a way in which the spacious guitars and spacey rhythms resonate with the change of seasons. Then they released Gold Afternoon Fix with the song “Russian Autumn Heart,” and the seasonal connection was complete.
So this fall has come to mean listening to [the] caseworker and their EP, Boats. The music has much in common with the Church—spacious guitars, spacey rhythms, and spaced-out vocals. You might call it psychedelic if it didn’t also come with some pop sensibility. It’s music for driving after dark, preferably on country highways. It’s music for headphone listening on long bus rides, picking up on the subtle fills and effects that make the music so rich. It’s music for sitting in the bay window watching the wind blow at a tremendous clip, rain and leave pelting the panes, and you’re wondering how you batten down the hatches of a house. It’s that kind of music, of which the title track may be the strongest with its chiming guitars, slide guitar effects, and well-placed percussion inflections.
[the] caseworker
Indiecater Records
