Track Premiere: Donovan Wolfington—’Ways’

Posted: 21st February, 2018 by The Editor

Donovan Wolfington are the one that got away. Despite a come-up in the fruitful Broken World-era of emo/indie and a promising jump to Topshelf for 2015’s How To Treat The Ones You Love—still one of the most daring and eclectic rock records of the 2010’s—the New Orleans band managed to amass one of the most forward-thinking, clever, quirky and technically bewildering punk catalogs of their generation—and hardly get recognized for it. They were a band plagued by misfortune and, not surprisingly given a sound that slammed presumably ill-fitting genres (shoegaze and hardcore, power-pop and dizzying emo-punk) against one another with bewildering success, bleeding internally due to creative differences. But they’re a band that will have went out in a glorious fury.

Their forthcoming swan song WAVES (out 3/2 via Community Records) features their shreddiest performances yet, their heaviest moments, their grandest arrangements and some of their best hooks. Much like their career, the nine-song opus doesn’t overstay its welcome, but its ending doesn’t feel premature either. It feels…right.

“WAYS”, which we’re premiering below, is the record’s second single and arguably one of the best songs they’ve ever released. Kicking off as a gargantuan riff with the crunch of a dozen Nature Valley bars and effortlessly sliding into a verse that’s as hefty as it is hooky, the song quickly swallows itself whole and regurgitates as a mellow, muttery synth bridge. The beaming keystrokes are eventually, in true D-Wolf fashion, consumed by a chugging breakdown of squealing licks and frontman Neil Berthier’s raspy bellows, only to end as abruptly as the song began.

Stream that ripper below:

Out 3/2 digitally, in-stores 3/30 via Community Records.

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Eli Enis | @eli_enis

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