Longtime fans of Iowa City’s Wet Hair will either love or hate In Vogue Spirit. There is a very notable change in this release from its older siblings. I, for one, am one of the fans who love In Vogue Spirit. It maintains enough of the core elements of Wet Hair that I love so much. Take, for example, Shawn Reed’s vibrating monotone, weirdo outsider synth, and a clear interest in retro-fitting old genres with newer ones. However, this record will no doubt be better bait for hooking those who tend to swim in more mainstream waters. It is their most accessible album to date. This will inevitably turn off some fans, at least those snobs who intentionally only seek after the most esoteric stuff they can find just because no one else listens to it. They might catch a whiff of conventionalism and instantly mislabel this as “selling out.” Such a ruling would be a grave misjudgment, for I can assure any naysayer that Shawn Reed and his crew of Ryan Garbes and Matt Fenner are only doing what they themselves are led to do. This is no B.S., but they’d be doing it whether it got them attention or not.
These eight tracks fit a different categorization than their ancestors on other albums. The obligatory comparison to Suicide, with minimal synth and bizzaro effects is obscured by the newer synth pop sensibilities that they have taken on. Also, Reed’s voice finds itself more stable and unswerving like an Ian Curtis than the unpredictable and untamed wailings that I have grown accustomed to. Good for them though. I think this is more the result of refinement and maturity than anything else. The more typical band quality of In Vogue Spirit gives them a confidence that never came across before. Just as we all even out with experience and age, so do we find Wet Hair finding their bearings and becoming a good and even mix of both the things that make them great and the unexplored and unattained potential that was before them.
While some will be disappointed with the step away from more freakish eccentricities, some, like me, will be pleased with the new pace. If I want what they were before then I have other material to return to. However, I also now have something different too that will keep me coming back. It is released in a hipster patterned record sleeve with an eight page booklet that has all the Shawn Reed/Ryan Garbes collage art that you can absorb in one sitting. Fun, fun, fun!
10/10
