'3 Sisters' by Waxahatchee

Musical moments that I personally enjoy

I think that from the moment I started to listen to whole studio albums instead of songs, live and compilation albums, I always thought of them the same as books or films: a work of art composed by an introduction, a body and a conclusion or end. Not necessarily in the "concept album" sense (which, on the other hand, I now find a bit pretentious in most cases), but just because, well, albums are perceived as the main works of any band or singer/songwriter. You can surgically remove any songs from them in order to include them in a playlist, but in their conception there is always a minimal thought made by the author, when not an interlude or a song which links to the next one. Which songs make it into the final version, which ones are left out, how the album starts and how it ends, how the tracklist makes more sense, what the cover is going to be; all of these are features that the artist takes into account and as a listener, musician (and former critic) myself, I also like to think about them sometimes.

There are quite a lot of times, in fact, where my favorite song in an album is either the first or the last one. It may sound predictable, as it seems logical to have the intention to start and end a record with a highlight to make the listener want to listen to the album again, but I'm not afraid to admit that, in my case, it often works like a charm. Even if songs are totally independent, the order in which they appear influence the flow of the album.

In the case of Waxahatchee's last album, 'Tiger's Blood', it works especially well, as not only is its first song my favorite one, but it also contains my favorite moment from the record. Yes, right from the start. And still, I always listen to it from beginning to end. That's how good it is (my girlfriend absolutely loving it has definitely something to do with it too).

'Tiger's Blood' comes after the widely praised 'St. Cloud', an album which redefined Waxahatchee's sound and aesthetics and elevated her as a songwriter among the critics, deepening into classical americana sounds and going back to the roots to refresh and make her own version of that kind of music which, to my personal opinion, sounds like nothing else does. 'Tiger's Blood' is the direct continuation of that album and sound and it just serves both to expand and to reduce the songs even more to their essentials at the same time, finding a collection of tunes which sound fresh, harmonious and honest, but above everything and to put it simply, great.

'3 Sisters' is the title of the opening song, which begins as a mid-tempo consisting of Katie's voice, a piano and a guitar playing long notes and some other instruments such as an organ which in fact is the first element heard and which sounds like waking up in the morning or attending the morning mass. The song starts and develops slowly (the bass takes more than one minute to start playing), creating a tension where everything seems as if it was standing on the starting line waiting for the countdown to start the race, demanding the listener to be patient (something which seems too challenging nowadays), like a bud taking its time to blossom. It even dares to get into the first chorus and to reprise it with these few elements, which makes it sound anti-climatic, since normally, the chorus is the highlight of a song. But a demanding song knows how to reward a patient listener, and when it finally explodes, it really does.

When almost half of the song has been delivered, and in the middle of a second chorus, with a drum pattern sounding in the background which almost sounds like white noise, the song finally decides to set off and reach its full potential: the band gets in together and it feels as if a song in black and white suddenly was in technicolor. Where there was a canvas representing and almost empty room, there is now a landscape of rich sounds and melodies which engross Katie's voice. Even the piano, which was just playing plain chords before, now allows itself to decorate and add more details to the palette, full of small details that one can only perceive by paying attention and giving the song several listens (or looking at the credits at Genius and trying to find out where each instrument in a much longer list that one could expect can be heard).

This structure works perfectly in the song itself, but it works even better in the context of the album. As I said before, this is the opening track, so it serves perfectly well as a slow starter, getting the listener ready for what it's about to come, even more so if we listen to the next song, which is much more up tempo and shows the full band in action from the start. It's the perfect nail to start building the rollercoaster of an album that 'Tiger's Blood' is.

If I insist on emphasizing what this song achieves sonically when trying to make an impact on the listener is precisely because one of the main features of 'Tiger's Blood' is the sobriety in its sound: no song tries to feel epic or huge, they are just as honest as they can be. It's even funny because Katie said that at some point during the first writing stages she thought of approaching a more modern and mainstream pop sound while it ended up sounding even more naked than 'St. Cloud'. There are no production tricks or things that one would know that must have been crafted in the studio. What you get is just what it is. And just with that (and thanks to Katie's vocal capacity and interpretation) the album gets to sound emotional, fun, melancholic, loose, beautiful and powerful and it gets to be its own thing even if it features the classical elements of country and americana such as the banjo or the steel pedal.

Probably, if you're a fan of theater, you will enjoy the song even more as the title is a reference to both ‘Crimes of the Heart’ by Beth Henley and another play with the same title, ‘Three Sisters’, by Chekhov, Katie identifying herself with one of these three sisters, and of course I appreciate her writing and her lyrics (the “it plays on my mind, how the time passing holds you like pocket change” line or the fact that she talks about being unsteady just when the band comes in and the song sounds more steady than ever, as my girlfriend pointed out the other day, is just peak lyricism and it’s amazing how natural it sounds), but if I like this song so much it is especially because of its development and that majestic entrance where everything just falls into place, inviting you to enjoy the ride and making you feel everything's going to be alright.