Forth Wanderers employ a tin-can-telephone style of compositionwhich they use even when living in the same area code. Since firstcollaborating in 2013 as Montclair, New Jersey high schoolers, guitarist andsongwriter Ben Guterl and vocalist Ava Trilling have passed songs back andforth like pen pals. Guterl will devise an instrumental skeleton before sendingit to vocalist Ava Trilling who pens the lyrics based off the melody. The duothen gather alongside guitarist Duke Greene, bassist Noah Schifrin, and drummerZach Lorelli to expand upon the demo. It’s a patient and practiced writingsystem that has carried the quintet through two EPs (2013’s Mahogany and2016’s Slop) and one LP (2014’s Tough Love). Forth Wanderers,the group’s sophomore record and Sub Pop debut, is the group's mostcomprehensive and assured statement yet.
Now living in Ohio and New York respectively, Guterl andTrilling have evolved their separate but collaborative writing process. “Theonly way I can really write is by myself in my room with a notebook, listeningto the song over and over again,” Trilling says. “I’ve never sat down to writea story, I write the song as it unfolds.” Since her lyrics are often embeddedwith intimate truths from her life, the private writing experience often leadsto intense self-reflection.
On Forth Wanderers these introspections includemeditations on relationships, discovery, and finding oneself adrift. Despitethe inherent heaviness of those themes, Forth Wanderers feels joyous, arock record bursting with heart. Take “Not for Me,” a romping track about “theambivalence of love.” Trilling’s confession of “I can’t feel the earth beneathmy feet/Flowers bloom but not for me” resists feeling like a dreary, pityingcomplaint; instead, as her bandmates bolster her melancholy with interlockingharmonic intricacies, she soars with self-actualization. Opener “Nevermine,” isa surge of confidence inspired by an ex-lover who is still captivated by herimage. “I don’t think I know who you are anymore/And I think I knew who I wasbefore,” she jabs with relish. On “Ages Ago” Trilling paints the image of aconstantly-shifting enigmatic lover. “I wasn’t sure who they were, they changedconstantly (hence the metaphor describing the “grey coat” and cutting theirhair just to “stay afloat”),” she says. “I wasn’t going to wait any longer tofind out.”
Recorded over fivedays by friend and audio engineer Cameron Konner at his Philadelphia homestudio, Forth Wanderers amplifies the heartfelt sentiments of theirearlier works into massive anthems. Guterl and Greene’s guitars have neversounded sharper, Schifrin and Lorelli’s terse rhythm section is restless, andTrilling sounds more self-assured than ever. These are exuberant, profoundsongs driven by tightly bound melodies and a loving attention to detail.
