posted: 2024-08-31 Vertigo Wand

Wand’s psychedelia has matured and deepened with every new release. 2024 album Vertigo continues the trajectory of their 2019 effort Laughing Matter, pulling songs out of lengthy group improvisations but replacing the crowded bluster of their earlier garage sound with ample space and considered arrangements. Vocalist/guitarist/bandleader Cory Hanson guides this new set of songs in a similar direction as his fantastically slow-moving solo albums, singing in either a Thom Yorke-esque mutter or a haunted falsetto over songs that shift and ooze.

“Curtain Call” is based around a deep space groove that eventually unfurls from spare, shutter-clicking tremolo guitar feedback to include grandiose string arrangements and soft synthesizer plucks. One of the more wandering tracks, “Mistletoe,” begins with punchy percussion and a thick Zamrock riff that is built upon with layers of drums, dissonant horn-like sounds, and synths that gradually dissolve into formlessness. Subtlety is the winning magic throughout Vertigo, with changes in the sonic picture happening so gently and with such control that the listener barely notices the songs ramping up. “JJ” is one of the most enjoyable examples of this, with hooky vocal harmonies, swimming strings, and odd rhythm changes all coming in one by one until what started as a minimal little song is spinning in beautiful, soft chaos. “Smile” turns up the volume with some distorted rock riff power, landing somewhere between Bardo Pond and Siamese Dream-era Smashing Pumpkins, while “High Time” explores a more abrasive blur of alt rock hooks and angry fuzz.

In its moments of both catharsis and ambience, Vertigo maintains a consistent balance. It’s a quietly adventurous album that never feels like it’s pushing too hard in any one direction, even when the sounds are swinging from blown amplifiers to bubbly flutes. It’s another exciting planet in the solar system Wand has been creating for over a decade at this point, one where most of the activity is happening below the surface.

Fred Thomas, AllMusic