Saint Cloud by Waxahatchee | Album Review
The fifth album from the Alabama singer-songwriter, informed by her journey to sobriety, tells personal stories over breezy instrumentals.
Katie Crutchfield is a testament to the fact that artists don’t need to be “tortured” to create art that inspires and entrances.
Performing under the name Waxahatchee, after the Alabama creek she grew up near, she put out four albums of indie rock and folk on the underground circuit throughout the 2010s, slowly building a loyal base of fans. However, during this time, Crutchfield struggled with alcohol addiction, something she found limited her success and ambition.
Aiming to tackle these issues so she could bring her full self to her music, Crutchfield got sober at the end of the 2010s, and that journey deeply informed her fifth album, Saint Cloud. Amazingly, this was the moment the mainstream finally “got” her, and Saint Cloud proved a tremendous success.
Perhaps partly because the album’s mellow sound highly complimented the moment it came out, two weeks into the COVID-19 lockdowns, Waxahatchee went viral in the music world.
Pitchfork gave it their “Best New Music” label, several publications gave it perfect scores, and it appeared on many year-end “Best Album” lists, which is where I discovered it all this time later. So with her sixth album Tigers Blood recently released, let’s look back on Waxahatchee’s breakthrough moment.
Opening track “Oxbow” gets my attention from the beginning, with its rattling drum riff and warbling synths framing a beautifully soft and sensitive little tune about Crutchfield deciding to become sober while visiting Barcelona, Spain:
Barna in white
Married the night
What dreams become concrete, they may feel trite
Makes a dull mind.
I love how deceptively simple this song and its message are, and I wish Crutchfield had incorporated more of these synth effects in the rest of the album. They add a fantastic depth from which other songs on the tracklist could benefit.
That simplicity does benefit other songs across the record. Look at “Lilacs,” with its twangy electric guitar leads and energetic, uplifting chorus. It feels like one of those songs with a wonderful timeless quality that’s always been around. I also love Crutchfield’s lyrics here, speaking in metaphor about the nature of addiction, the importance of putting in the work, and the necessity of support:
I get so angry, baby, at something you might say
I dream about an awful stranger, work my way through the day
I run it like a silent movie, I run it like a violent song
Run it like a voice compelling, so right it can’t be wrong
If I’m a broken record, write it in the dust, babe
I’ll fill myself back up like I used to do
And if my bones are made of delicate sugar
I won’t end up anywhere good without you.
And then there’s the slow-burning “Arkadelphia,” which features some of the album's most personal and affecting lyrics. She describes her relationship with another addict and how she tried her best to support and help this person, despite her own struggles:
If you get real close to the ending
I hope you know I did what I could
We try to give it all meaning
Glorify the grain of the wood
Tell ourselves what’s beautiful and good.
While the tunes and stories at the heart of Saint Cloud are beautifully written, I can’t say I’m completely satisfied with how they’re presented here. Production-wise, this is a very stripped-back record with a simple palette of traditional instruments: guitar, piano, bass, and drums. I’m hearing these songs exactly as they’d sound live, with hardly any touches of synth or noise to liven up the mix.
I also take issue with Crutchfield’s delivery throughout this album, as her enunciation is rather slack, making her hard to understand if I’m not reading the lyrics while listening. Considering many of the songs on Saint Cloud are story songs, I think I would find them more impactful if I could follow the narrative straight from her mouth.
Lastly, a couple of moments on the record feel a little too similar to each other. Listening to “Can’t Do Much” and “The Eye” back to back reveals how much they share, from the melody to the key signature. They’re set apart by their tempo, with “Can’t Do Much” being the more energetic and lively of the two and the lyrical content, but I can’t help feeling like there’s redundancy here.
But what’s not redundant is the titular closing track. One of the most fragile and delicate moments of the record, Crutchfield serves impressionistic images of different places she’s lived throughout her life, tracking her journey through sobriety and beyond. Most impactful to me is her resolve to let go of the mental restraints holding her back, recognizing if she has the power to beat addiction, she has the power to tackle anything:
When you get back home to St. Cloud
Watch the new world project
A rousing image, scorched earth swinging
Supernatural and complex
And I might show up in a white dress
Turn reluctance on its ear
If the dead just go on living
Well, there’s nothing left to fear.
Production: 6/10
Lyrics: 8/10
Songwriting: 7/10
Overall: 7/10
Favorites: Oxbow, Lilacs, Arkadelphia
***************************************************************************************
Thank you for reading! What did you think of this album? Leave a comment with your thoughts, and I’ll see you in the next review!