GutterPutter

Why? is the musical project and band that’s led by Yoni Wolf, a Californian art kid whose studies in the University of Cincinnati allowed him to make friends with aspiring musicians and thereby build his music career since 1997. Standing out for their incorporation of hip hop influences and an eclectic flexibility in composition, Why? coasts off of 2008’s Alopecia which stood out as one of the overlooked cult favourites in the indie scene for its overt rap rock stylistic. To so many of the fans who might have grown up with the mentioned album, Wolf’s certain geeky vibes help them through in so many transformative stages of their lives due to his quirky insights into self-esteem, depression, and mortality.

The Well I Fell Into is the latest output from the band, one that doesn’t exactly have a lot of mythos pumped into it. At the time of writing, Why? seems to be content with leaving their mark on indie music as it is. And nothing more as evidenced by the withering introduction of ‘Lauderdale Detour’. Whether it be fielding pop culture references like Godzilla in ‘G-dzillah G’dolah’ or making vague allusions to the environment like ‘Nis(s)an Dreams, Pt. 1’, the palette is made up of twee pianos, soaring bowed instruments like the cello, and jangly guitars. These, alongside the nostalgic fervour that is felt in ‘The Letters, Etc.’ with its Fleetwood Mac-esque vocal harmonies, lend credence to the genre coming off as being more in tune with chamber pop. This is backed in part by the tinge of swing in ‘What’s Me?’ or the bittersweet melodramatic crescendo in ‘Marigold’. These bits allow the album to stick out from much of Why?’s discography without coming off as being an unexpected kind of left turn that just so happens to not work at all.

The production is a bit more murky in the ways that the sound layers have been mixed and on where the studio effects help to bring a lot more vibrancy to The Well I Fell. In ‘Brand New’, the rapid-fire melody of the Spanish guitar is given top priority which gives a dissonantly romantic feeling to the whole song even as it fixates on a love that had long left the relationship. On the other end, ‘When We Do the Dance’ begins with the eccentric bass playing which is recorded under what appears to be a more improvisational session. Yet, the cut away from that towards the vocalised, spoken-word account of… intercourse or transhumanism (?) is questionable. However ambient the background sounds, it feels like an excessive attempt in making an interlude meaningful. On the relative plus side, ‘Later at The Loon’ and ‘Sin Imperial’ offer a certain reverb to their percussion that gives a psychedelic touch to the tracks.

Arguably the weakest link in the whole album is that of its lyrics and, to some extent, the vocal performance of Wolf. The instrumentation so far is pleasant, the production is hit-or-miss although it provides a kind of freshness to the tracks, and the dive into chamber pop doesn’t come off as weird as it could have. However, some of Wolf’s singing feels like the National’s Matt Berninger with too much effort placed into Modernist angst without its avant-philosophical thinking. Let alone the knack at nailing the woes of being an older adult. ‘Jump’ has good intentions in warning about the dangers of depression to the point of suicide, but there is simply little flair in the writing that stabs you in the heart. ‘Atreyu’ tries to be sensual in its bassline and slow tempo, yet the verses didn’t feel as if it can reignite how you feel about your chemistry with your partner compared to its lovestruck chorus. Arguably the lyrical highlight is ‘Versa Go!’ where, on a drive back home after an important Jewish event “from / a sorrowful ancient calendar”, Wolf sounds more affirmed in continuing to keep on living his life. This comes even in spite of the seeming problems that threaten to wear him down – “I came crawling back, you denied. / I’m a drag. I’m a dragon. / My life drags on.”

The Well I Fell Into is by no means a groundbreaking record. It can feel a bit lopsided in how each track works. Some, like ‘Marigold’, works like a charm whereas the likes of ‘Jump’ feels insipid in its execution even though both tracks deal with an emotionally sensitive topic. For the album to end with ‘Sending Out a Pamphlet’ is a “perfect” coda largely because it represents the album in all of its strengths and weaknesses. The production accentuates the piano with a polish that helps to give it a wistful yearning of a lost love. Unfortunately, how that emotion is expressed in words feels unintentionally kitschy. “The image on the front page fucks, / Devil and Angel do a foxtrot in a shadowbox” might come off as being too abstract as to whether it’s a metaphor of some internal conflict. Too bad that it might not be one to win over new fans although the rest of the following might be content on how Why? still keeps up with their reinventing for a good while.

3.3/5