Widowspeak – Roses

NYC duo Widowspeak have released their highly anticipated new album Roses, out now via Captured Tracks.

The longtime duo of Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas, Roses arrives as Widowspeak’s seventh album. One of many bands to crop up in a fertile New York City music scene over 16 years ago, they started out shuffling gear between venues now-since shuttered (Glasslands, Cake Shop, 285 Kent, Death By Audio to name a few) and their practice space in Monster Island Basement (now a Trader Joe’s). Widowspeak is now a married couple, working day jobs in their own off-season. Robert is a carpenter, Molly a waitress. Roses is populated not with dramatic overtures but with the backdrop of the minutiae and repetition of daily acts.  Small observations before, during, and after work: the ritual of pouring water for customers, catching a cold on your day off.  Daydreaming about winning the lottery, or maybe realizing you already won.

They recorded the album last January at a studio on the Greek island Hydra, tucked away in an old house upon the village’s steep hills.  It’s quiet there in winter, when the tourists have all gone home. Longtime touring members Willy Muse, John Andrews, and Noah Bond serve here as the players.  Roses was then taken home and slowly, lightly tinkered with, before being deftly mixed by Alex Farrar at Drop of Sun Studios, and mastered by Greg Obis at Chicago Mastering.

The band announced Roses with lead single “If You Change,” a song that captures everything that’s made the long-running group a staying force, from its breezy guitars to the impossibly rich chorus, there’s a timeless quality imbued with the twang of a Lynchian roadhouse band.

The single was praised by Stereogum, Consequence, Brooklyn Vegan, Rolling Stone, Under the Radar + more.  Recently they shared “No Driver,” a lush and widescreen pop gem complete with a blistering guitar lead that feels like an instant classic.

Final single “Soft Cover” is achingly gorgeous, featuring one of the album’s most sweeping hooks, buoyed by a driving rhythm section and vocalist Molly Hamilton’s saccharine voice.

Across the ten tracks that make up Roses, intimate spaces and stages of love are captured with a nostalgic, vaseline-coated lens. If music can simultaneously be naturalistic and noir, saturated and lush, that is Widowspeak.  This is a band that knows how to set a scene.

There’s dream and power pop, a little Stones, maybe some Petty, open and languid ballads with the twang of a Lynchian roadhouse band… Perhaps you hear REM, Yo La Tengo or Cat Power. A little Neil Young in Hamilton’s references to working at the diner.  The magic of the band is, still and always, the interplay between Molly and Robert in their two leading roles: her languid, textured voice and his visceral guitar playing. And as producer, Robert captures the ephemeral magic of a band finding a song in the studio: something that still bears traces of the directness of Molly’s voice memos and the dense guitar tapestries of the demos. The rough-hewn marks of the tools are still evident, the noise kept in. 

“Can’t hold too tight or I’ll have nothing, Like a candy melts in your hand.” As the album closer  “Hourglass” contemplates the fleeting nature of something, anything, it illustrates what is most true about Widowspeak.   At the heart of it, their music is special because it is real: most of all for the people making it. Fragile and temporary, and worthwhile… like love itself.

Tour Dates

June 16th – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

June 18th – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s

June 19th – Washington DC @ DC9

June 20th – Mount Solon, VA @ Red Wing Roots Festival

June 22nd – Raleigh, NC @ Pour House

June 23rd – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl

June 24th – Nashville, TN @ Third Man Blue Room

June 26th – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry

June 27th – Milwaukee, WI @ The Argo

June 28th – Chicago, IL @ Schubas

June 30th – Ferndale, MI @ Magic Bag

July 1st – Toronto, ON @ Sound Garage

July 2nd – Montreal, QC @ L’Esco

July 3rd – Boston, MA @ Arts at the Armory

July 30th – Seattle, WA @ Barboza

July 31st – Aug 2nd – Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon (Festival)

Aug 4th – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill

Aug 7th – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room

Aug 8th – Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room

Aug 9th – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar

Aug 11th – Santa Fe, NM @ Tumbleroot Brewery

Aug 12th – Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive

Aug 14th – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge (Psych Lake City Festival)

Aug 15th – Boise, ID @ Shrine Social Club

Aug 16th – Spokane, WA @ The District

Nov 12th – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club

Nov 13th – Dublin, IE @ Workmans Club

Nov 15th – Glasgow, UK @ The Rum Shack

Nov 16th – Manchester, UK @ YES (Pink Room)

Nov 17th – London, UK @ Scala

Nov 18th – Lille, FR @ La Bulle

Nov 19th – Paris, FR @ LePopUp!

Nov 22nd – Milan, IT @ Arci Bellezza

Nov 23rd – Zurich, CH @ Bogen F

Nov 24th – Munich, DE @ Milla

Nov 25th – Salzburg, AT @ Rockhouse

Nov 27th – Prague, CZ @ Café V Lese

Nov 29th – Warsaw, PL @ Chmury

Dec 1st – Berlin, DE @ Frannz Club

Dec 2nd – Hamburg, DE @ Hebebuhne

Dec 3rd – Malmö, SE @ Plan B

Dec 4th – Gothenburg, SE @ Pustervik

Dec 5th – Stockholm, SE @ Hus 7

Dec 6th – Oslo, NO @ John Dee

Dec 7th – Copenhagen, DK @ Rust

Dec 9th – Utrecht, NL @ DB’s

Dec 10th – Kortrijk, BE @ Wilde Westen

Dec 11th – Hasselt, BE @ AFF

Dec 13th – Tilburg, NL @ Hall of Fame

#widowspeaking