{"title":"Wye Oak","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBaltimore indie folk rock duo, Wye Oak, takes their name from the honorary state tree of Maryland. Originally formed as \"Monarch\" in mid-2006, the band consists of Andy Stack on drums, keyboards, and backup vocals, and Jenn Wasner on vocals and guitars.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith their unique blend of indie folk and rock influences, Wye Oak has captivated audiences with their heartfelt lyrics and mesmerizing melodies. Their music resonates with listeners on a deep level, evoking emotions that are both introspective and relatable.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKnown for their dynamic live performances and powerful stage presence, Wye Oak has gained a loyal following over the years. Their discography boasts critically acclaimed albums that showcase their growth as artists while staying true to their signature sound.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"shriek-variations","title":"Shriek: Variations","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 2014, Wye Oak released \u003ci\u003eShriek\u003c\/i\u003e, their fourth album. It was a necessary departure for Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack, who found themselves on uncertain ground after two years of constant touring for 2011’s Civilian, living on opposite ends of the country and trying to revitalize their creative partnership. Wasner set aside her guitar for a bass. Stack took on the band’s upper register, playing syncopated, meditative keyboard parts that interacted with Wasner’s voice, which was newly freed from its call-and-response relationship to the guitar what had been, until then, a signature of Wye Oak’s sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“This idea and the ensuing creative reworking of our band did what it was meant to do,” Wasner writes in 2024. “It ended a long, painful period of creative stagnancy and reconnected me with the joy of making music.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDuring that period, Wasner and Stack were introduced to William Brittelle, the Brooklyn-based composer whose 2019 LP Spiritual America featured Wye Oak, the Metropolis Ensemble, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. His orchestral reimaginings of five songs from \u003ci\u003eShriek (Shriek: Variations\u003c\/i\u003e, if you will) are the centerpiece of this package, which serves not only to mark the tenth anniversary of a great album, but to demonstrate the richness of Wye Oak’s compositions. Stack says of Shriek: Variations: “It’s like looking at the songs in a funhouse mirror. The songs on \u003ci\u003eShriek\u003c\/i\u003e can be stripped down or embellished this is maximal embellishment. William took the album and blew it to smithereens, looking at it in a weird, prismatic way.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThrough Brittelle, Wasner and Stack found themselves at the intersection of classical, experimental, and pop music. Further collaborations, like the Brooklyn Youth Chorus featuring No Horizon and Paul and Michi Wiancko’s string arrangements on “My Signal” from The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs, followed, as this connection fundamentally changed the way Wye Oak approached making records, incorporating an entirely new palette of sound into their work.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat shift began here. \u003ci\u003eShriek: Variations\u003c\/i\u003e may feel like a startling take on the material, something like light bursting into a room through drawn curtains, but Brittelle’s arrangements are largely original to his first collaborations with Wye Oak a decade ago, suggesting that his maximalist arrangements have lived comfortably within the framework of Shriek the whole time, waiting for the right moment to emerge. It’s a fitting reintroduction to the album, which upon its initial release was pigeonholed into the easy one-note talking point of being the “no-guitar” record. But even so, as that happened, Shriek quietly started to become a staple among Wye Oak’s core fans.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHere, with help from Brittelle’s expansive compositions, the release draws attention back to the Songwriting how, regardless of the instrumentation, Wasner and Stack’s uncanny music writing partnership at the core is what makes both Shriek and Wye Oak excellent. Joined by the Metropolis Ensemble, Paul Wiancko, and Lizzie Burns, Wye Oak turn songs like “Logic of Color” inside out, reaching towards a kind of pastoral bombast, Brittelle’s aesthetic with Wasner and Stack as an anchor. In fact, “Logic of Color” in this iteration takes that “no-guitar” script and flips it, with Wasner playing the synthesizer ostinato on acoustic guitar at its center. If Shriek is a record that charts the depths of solemnity and inner space, its Variations, roiling in a sea of winds, brass, and strings, recolors that space and complicates it, a gorgeous, unexpected response to the original’s siren call.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Merge Records","offers":[{"title":"Orange LPx2","offer_id":50389730787659,"sku":"2182525","price":49.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Wye_Oak_-_Shriek__Variations_efe8e9cd_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726369715"},{"product_id":"no-horizon-ep","title":"No Horizon EP","description":"\u003cp\u003eMulti-instrumentalists Jenn Wasner (also of Flock of Dimes and Bon Iver) and Andy Stack (also of Lambchop and Joyero) shapeshift once more in this beautiful and strange avant-pop EP collaboration with Brooklyn Youth Choir, the Grammy Award-winning group of 47 vocalists led by Dianne Berkun Menaker (who have collaborated with David Byrne, Pharrell, Bon Iver, Beyonce, Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw and many more.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Merge Records","offers":[{"title":"Purple | 12\"","offer_id":50389831287115,"sku":"1096931","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Pink | 12\"","offer_id":50389831418187,"sku":"1097003","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/ea8a9d32-ea93-44a8-88b5-5b686d23dfea_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726374422"},{"product_id":"shriek","title":"Shriek","description":"\u003cp\u003eEvery purchase online or instore gets a free Rough Trade \/ City Slang sampler CD.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFollowing extensive touring in support of their critically acclaimed 2011 release 'Civilian', Wye Oak members Jenn and Andy found themselves apart for the first time. Andy had recently moved to the west coast, leaving their hometown of Baltimore. Simultaneously but separately, the two began exploring new ways of writing. Jenn, having picked up the bass did not begin with her typical guitar and likewise Andy began to explore different ways of layering keyboards. The freedom of these new methods allowed for a new found emotional immediacy and in spite of, or perhaps because of the distance, Wye Oak have recorded their most personal album yet. 'Shriek' was a co-production between Wye Oak and Nicolas Vernhes of the Rare Book Room in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Vernhes also engineered and mixed the album. His inventive production work complimented the band's new direction, helping them to create their immensely layered and emotive new sound.LP with Download.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"City Slang","offers":[{"title":"CD | x2","offer_id":50455913070923,"sku":"372285","price":5.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/01b5079a-202f-4e4f-bd28-5b119d5a3f6e_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727195039"},{"product_id":"every-day-like-the-last-collected-singles-2019-2023-2","title":"Every Day Like the Last : Collected Singles 2019  2023","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWye Oak\u003c\/strong\u003e is Jenn Wasner (of Bon Iver, Flock of Dimes) and Andy Stack (of Helado Negro, Joyero). Merge Records release \u003cem\u003eEvery Day Like the Last: Collected Singles 2019–2023\u003c\/em\u003e, a physical home for three new tracks and previously released music from \u003cstrong\u003eWye Oak\u003c\/strong\u003e, charting the past four years of the band’s lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eJenn Wasner and Andy Stack’s musical partnership bloomed in the uncertainty of that period, whenever they felt that \u003cstrong\u003eWye Oak\u003c\/strong\u003e had something to say. They shifted to quickly writing, recording, and releasing digital EPs and singles. To Stack, there is a thread running through what is seemingly chaos: “Finding cheer in the doom of the world.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEvery Day Like the Last\u003c\/em\u003e does just that, reminding the listener of the new heights \u003cstrong\u003eWye Oak\u003c\/strong\u003e have reached since 2018’s \u003cem\u003eThe Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs\u003c\/em\u003e, while gazing into the unknown of what’s ahead. The title of this collection acknowledges that duality, posing it like a question: “every day like the day before it” or “every day like the last day on Earth?” “Both meanings apply,” Wasner says. There are no easy answers.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Merge Records","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50478493172043,"sku":"2022800","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"White LP","offer_id":50478493761867,"sku":"2022801","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50478492516683,"sku":"2022799","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Wye_Oak_-_Every_Day_Like_the_Last_Collected_Singles_2019__2023_1ae18fa1_thum.jpg?v=1727485272"},{"product_id":"the-louder-i-call-the-faster-it-runs","title":"The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs","description":"\u003cp\u003eWye Oak's fifth album, \u003ci\u003eThe Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs\u003c\/i\u003e. Available on Indie Exclusive Beige and Blue Split Colored Double Gatefold LP, Double Gatefold Black LP, and CD.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs - \u003c\/i\u003ethe triumphant fifth album by Wye Oak - begins with an explosion. For a few seconds, piano, drums, and a playful keyboard loop gather momentum; then, all at once, they burst, enormous bass flooding the elastic beat. “Suffering, I remember suffering,” sings Jenn Wasner, her voice stretched coolly across the tizzy. “Feeling heat and then the lack of it, but not so much what the difference is.” The moment declares the second coming of Wye Oak, a band that spent more than a decade preparing to write this record - their most gripping and powerful set of songs to date, built with melodies, movement, and emotions that transcend even the best of their catalogue. \u003ci\u003eLouder\u003c\/i\u003e is the third record that Wasner and Andy Stack, who launched Wye Oak in Baltimore, have made while living in separate cities - she in Durham, North Carolina, he in Marfa, Texas. They flew to one another for a week or so at a time, hunkering in home studios to sort through and combine their separate song sketches. These shorter stints together produced less second-guessing and hesitation in their process, yielding an unabashed and unapologetic Wye Oak. The result is the biggest, broadest, boldest music they’ve ever made. \u003ci\u003eLouder\u003c\/i\u003e pursues a litany of modern malaises, each track diligently addressing a new conflict and pinning it against walls of sound, with the song’s subject and shape inextricably and ingeniously linked.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCD - 4-panel wallet with booklet\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLP - Black Vinyl housed in a double Gatefold jacket with printed insert and download.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLP+ - Limited Beige and Blue Split Vinyl housed in a double Gatefold jacket with printed insert and download.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Merge Records","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50497402405195,"sku":"1028166","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50497403879755,"sku":"1028163","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/6dad7eea-4e35-4084-a04b-5176bc1cc1f5_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727727752"},{"product_id":"the-knot","title":"The Knot","description":"\u003cp\u003eA timely reissue of Baltimorean duo Wye Oak's second album, released in 2009 which found them spreading their wings onto the international and world stage.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Merge Records","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50499096019275,"sku":"1114197","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50499096478027,"sku":"1114198","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/f0655fb3-4dfe-4cdf-95cf-de9b2b1301db_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727767861"},{"product_id":"if-children","title":"If Children","description":"\u003cp\u003eOriginally self-released in 2007 under the moniker Monarch, Wye Oak’s debut \u003ci\u003eIf Children\u003c\/i\u003e was given a proper introduction to the world the following spring on Merge Records. Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack take their minimalist setup to maximalist ends, pairing gentle campfire folk with bombastic hazy shoegaze, sometimes within the same song. Their assured mission statement makes its vinyl debut, on red and white splatter, no less, exclusively for RSD 2022.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Merge Records","offers":[{"title":"Red | LP","offer_id":50503199293771,"sku":"1145238","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50503200276811,"sku":"1153917","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/9b2c521c-b175-4b2e-ae00-1c0baf9074de_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727793755"},{"product_id":"civilian-and-cut-all-the-wires-2009-2011","title":"Civilian and Cut All the Wires: 2009 – 2011","description":"\u003cp\u003eTen years after its release, Wye Oak’s Civilian remains a raw, sinewy punch of a record bleak and intense and lonely and self-assured all at once. The album unravels with the sort of self questioning and uncertainty that come with youth, and its specific confidence in unflinchingly probing all of those emotions, feeling them to their deepest extent even when it’s tearing you apart at the seams. When Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner released Civilian, it marked both the ascension and death of Wye Oak, or at least a version of it. Now, a decade later, \u003ci\u003eCivilian and Cut All the Wires: 2009–2011\u003c\/i\u003e delves back into that pivotal record and adds a lost album of unreleased tracks and demos to Civilian’s universe.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eCut All the Wires: 2009–2011\u003c\/i\u003e, a 12-song collection of rare and unreleased tracks and demos culled from the Wye Oak archives, is an extension of the bruised and aching Civilian. Sonic paradoxes abound: the mellow “Sinking Ship” is preceded by the wall-of-sound grunginess that roars through “Half a Double Man.” A pared-down acoustic Daytrotter live session of “Two Small Deaths” dovetails into the jangling “Holy Holy” demo. The closing lyrics over the frenetic, screeching feedback of “Electricity” lend the anniversary release its title.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Merge Records","offers":[{"title":"Green | LP | x2","offer_id":50530963816779,"sku":"1127379","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/fcded61a-dce3-4a5d-b6e2-8a7fa4341a6a_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1728089466"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/collections\/test_4403ff56_thumbnail_4096_7fe9be8e-1f86-44e4-85d3-598b4ad0cbc0.jpg?v=1726369697","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/wye-oak.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}