Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Ken's Best of 2023 - #10: David Wax Museum - You Must Change Your Life


If you've been paying attention to David Wax Museum for the past few years, you'll know that they've been talking about having a great album in the can that they were just waiting to release when they felt they could truly tour behind it and promote it properly. That album is You Must Change Your Life, and it's truly a culmination of David Wax Museum's recent sound experimentation as they've moved away from the traditional Mexican folk of 2011's Everything is Saved and 2009's Carpenter Bird to a more modern folk sound (along with some experimentation.) Sometimes an album sounds like a band is trying to make a big, hit record, and that is certainly the case with You Must Change Your Life, but it still feels like an earnest release.

David Wax Museum are a band I've been a huge fan of for a while. Since discovering them through the Newport Folk Festival and NPR way back in 2010, this is a band I feel a strong connection to. ("When You Are Still" was my wedding song, just to give you an idea.) When you're a huge fan of a band, especially for over a decade, sometimes you can get critical when they mess with their sound, and I can do that quite a bit. So when I say I love their new album, I truly mean that. 

This is also the kind of album that hit me at a very specific time in my life, when a song like "You Must Change Your Life" speaks to me on a personal level. It's a constant reminder that I've felt stuck in a rut for too long, and helps inspire me to do something about it... which I still need to.

Songs of note: "You Must Change Your Life," "Luanne," "Be Patient," "Hey Annie"



No comments:

Post a Comment