Ever heard a record that you've decided you can't stand within the first minute of its run-time, but find your foot tapping to before long? When it happens, it's a maddening thing; you find yourself being very angry that something in this music which was so repugnant to you at first is clearly affecting you. I had a moment just like that the first time I started listening to Forever So by Husky; as first, the subdued and almost dreamlike of singer Husky Gawenda reminded me of everything I regard as the worst qualities of college rock and folk (vocally maudlin, rudderless and self-absorbed pseudo-folk more interested in the glare reflecting off of the singer's shoe than anything). I worried briefly if that sound was becoming chic again, and that made me sad, but then it happened – at almost exactly the minute mark of “Tidal Wave,” Husky's sound began to swell and crested with vibrant, tremolo-tinged guitars leading, and I heard myself say, “Wpw” in spite of myself. What an incredible moment! After that, nothing about the song, the record or the experience of it all was the same; after that, drums materialized to ground the song and some unusual keyboards broke into the mix for the bridge to add some more color (at around the 2:46 mark) and to further flesh out the song, and it all came together to help bolster Gawenda's winsome, distracted melody.
That was the moment where I went from being disgusted to being totally transfixed by Forever So.
After “Tidal Wave” receded, I was titillated to discover that Gawenda immediately seemed to be emboldened and really starts to assert his will and presence on “Fake Moustache” – straddling the lines between Bright Eyes and Paul Simon with a rhythm that veers from dry to spry between verses. It suddenly seemed possible Forever So might mark the emergence of a new voice in either indie rock or mainstream folk or both, and that prospect was wildly exciting to me.
Remarkable, epiphany-inspiring moments just kept manifesting throughout the duration of Forever So. On the reasonably unusual but upbeat ramble of “History's Door,” for example, Husky proved that magic images of travel and hurry can be built from simple utensils and really seek to inspire ideas of nothing more than those urges; here, the singer simply leaves those images he creates open and lets listeners decide if they've reached the destination they desired when the song ends. On “Hunter,” Husky ventures out into the back woods and conjures rustic images of cottage contemplation and rest beautifully before suddenly becoming very insular and almost claustrophobic in the ruminations of “Animals & Freaks.” The ease with which Husky is able to shift between dynamics and emotional states here is remarkable; with only the slightest alteration and re-evaluation, both singer and band are able to totally refocus their vision and inspire listeners to suddenly feel something totally new and different from the vibes they had inhabited just moments before. The band does it so easily; and while listeners will come to expect it on a song-by-song basis, they'll still be totally shocked on occasion, and uttering the words, “Wow – that's so fuckin' cool” like a mantra.
In the fact that listeners will find themselves surprised and wow-ed so often during Forever So's run-time lies the proof that Husky has successfully made something which can capture the imaginations of those who encounter it. Even if they start out indifferent or disinterested in the music the band makes, there is a bracing unknown about both the album and the band which is hypnotizing; I can't wait to see what comes next from this band.
Artist:
www.huskysongs.com/
www.facebook.com/huskysongs
www.twitter.com/huskysongs
www.soundcloud.com/huskysongs
Album:
Forever So will be released on July 10, 2011 by Liberation Music/ Sub Pop. Pre-order it here on Amazon .
Download:
"Tidal Wave" – [mp3]
