NEW ALBUMS
WEDNESDAY
Rat Saw God DEAD OCEANS 9/10
Asheville quintet forge triumphant rock from everyday tragedies.
By Stephen Deusner
DISCOVERED Searching out the best albums new to Uncut
“CHOSEN To Deserve”, a knotty relationship anthem on Wednesday’s third album, features one of the more unusual ODs described in a rock song. “My friends all took Benadryl ’til they could see shit crawlin’ up the walls”, guitarist/vocalist Karly Hartzman sings, her voice twisting into a slurred twang. “One of those times my friend took a little too much/He had to get his stomach pumped”.
It’s a complicated moment, funny but also harrowing, and she sounds simultaneously embarrassed by her juvenile escapades, impressed by their wildness, and relieved that she and her friends survived long enough to put the memory into a song. A sharp lyricist with a keen eye for revealing details, and a surprisingly deft singer with the ability to add fine gradients of emotion to a throwaway line, Hartzman stands by all her dumb decisions, all her glaring flaws, all her bad experiences: “I’m the girl you were chosen to deserve”, she declares, then adds: “Thank God that I was chosen to deserve you”.