2013 Evil Weevil Records
By: Mike Mucus
New Brunswick’s Ex Wife released New Colors back in June of 2013, but they just recently received physical stock of the vinyl. I got my hands on a copy of New Colors and gave it a listen. Ex Wife continue to take steps forward in their sound. New Colors sounds very different form their superb 2009 release Everything Was Beautiful, but their craft remains. Nick Bolton’s haunting vocals still remind me of a ghost that never quite left the room. The baritone guitar and bass work great together on the record and coupled with Matt Harvey’s dynamic drumming which fluctuates between quiet and thunderous you can understand why this band lends a sense of familiarity to you without giving you a feeling of being an overdone Emo leftover. In fact, the 90’s influences are rife throughout the record; consider the track “Agnosia”. It would fit right into the Sub Pop catalog from the Mudhoney or early Nirvana era. Dirty, scraping guitars give way to Nick Bolton’s little melodic baritone leads and go right back into the storm cloud of distortion brilliantly. Contrastingly, “Young Parents” a much more contemporary sounding song, starts off as a Real Estate-esque sounding jaunt, and then descends into washed out delay and torturous screams illustrating the growing direction of the band while riding the wave between menacing and melodic. Recorded and engineered by vocalist Nick Bolton, it’s great to see such an earnest band continue to grow and expand their sound.
Listen to the album for free here
