6: Waxahatchee — Out in the Storm

Katie Crutchfield, the creative force behind Waxahatchee, steps on the gas for her fourth full-length outing. While the Alabama native’s early work mined an introspective indie-folk vein and 2015’s promising Ivy Tripp toyed with various styles and tempos, Out in the Storm flat-out rocks. It recalls the dynamic ‘90s grunge-pop of Belly and the Breeders. Collectively a rumination on the dissolution and aftermath of an unhealthy relationship, the songs crackle with raw emotion. “I’d never be a girl you’d like or trust or respect,” Crutchfield laments on the bitter “Brass Beam.” If Crutchfield’s lyrical confessions can be at times uncomfortably intimate, the alt-rock riffs are so buoyant that it’s possible to tune out the heartache and just pogo around the living room. But the pain is impossible to ignore on “Fade” the gorgeous ballad that ends Out in the Storm. Here we find the protagonist post-breakup, battle-scarred but ultimately wiser. “I poured everything out/It never would be enough,” Crutchfield acknowledges mournfully. It’s an apt moment of closure on this electrifying album.

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