ALBUM REVIEW: “Girl With Fish” by Feeble Little Horse
- Post Authorby Music director
- Post DateSat Aug 19 2023
BY: CONNER POSTER
In June 2023, Pittsburgh-based indie rock band Feeble Little Horse released their sophomore album, Girl With Fish. This project expands upon their earlier works with new methods of experimentation, while still heavily embodying their unique sound. Girl With Fish uniquely blends indie rock with hyperpop and noise elements to create a sound that is exciting and playful, and definitely doesn't take itself too seriously.
Only having formed in 2021, it is impressive to see such a developed sound at this point. Guitarists Sebastian Kinsler and Ryan Walchonski formed the band after a short-lived garage rock project, and quickly released the band's first EP, Modern Tourism, in May of the same year. Feeble Little Horse expanded to include Lydia Slocum, their current bassist and singer for more recent racks. They then released their first album Hayday, which is definitely where we begin to see more of their current sound appear. The track “Chores” from Hayday in particular was met with large amounts of praise.
Girl With Fish utilizes traditional rock instruments, while building upon that traditional base by incorporating large amounts of synth and distortion effects. In this way, it is totally pulling from genres such a shoegaze and hyper pop, but in a way that isn't overwhelming. The synth on tracks such as “Steamroller” helps to give these songs their melodies and adds flourishes of sounds on top of a solid base. The distortion of the guitar holds a large portion of their sound, allowing the music to really scream through the headphones unlike other tracks that hold themselves back.
Elements of hyperpop in this album really help to match the energy of the vocals. The fast kind of electronic and heavily distorted guitar is definitely a leader of this sound. This style of guitar playing and just noise making in general seems almost silly to me, but in the best way, it really does sounds cool. Better yet, it wonderfully matches that unseriousness of the lyrics, goofy verse muttered causally by Lydia Slocum on tracks such as “Freak” and “Pocket.”
As much as Girl With Fish is very unified in its sound, it does do a great job of differentiating its sound in the right way. A large part of Feeble Little Horse's style is blaring with noise and feedback (still very melodically), but they also take it down a notch and lets the notes rings more on their own on tracks like “Healing”, talking step back from the shrill noises and incorporating some sounds that are a little softer, almost like some jingling keys on this one.