I can say without equivocation that "Flowering" by Straight White Teeth, the folk project of singer songwriter Patrick McGuire, kills me on many levels. The fluid guitar picking, in and of itself, with it's stark textures and runaway licks and pull offs creates it's own sad unsteadiness and unease. The cadence, pushes on the downbeat while McGuire's vox run in a more linear fashion, cast out in measures and sustains. His vocal aesthetic that blends wonderment with pathos crooning words that touch on deathly serious subjects and stirs in poetic questions, artful reflections and surreal declarations makes for repeated listening. We may not relate to McGuire's specific happenings but can relate to the surreal sadness as the connective tissue of life. After each listen while the hurt that we all experience in our lives may not lessen we can find bits of catharsis, of peace to hold together.
"Flowering" is from Straight White Teeth's upcoming album, "Costilla".
-Robb Donker Curtius
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On Costilla, the forthcoming album from Straight White Teeth, musician and writer Patrick McGuire exchanges sardonic synth-laden indie pop for sincere acoustic guitars and lush layered vocals to build affecting songs that are shaped by the comfort of nostalgia as much as they are by modern dread. With an unapologetic penchant for the pensive folk music of Nick Drake and Elliott Smith, McGuire croons about a surreal, real life encounter with a dog, suffering through a serious bike accident in Philadelphia, and criss-crossing North America in search of a home. Costilla, which derives its name from the rural New Mexican community where McGuire settled, was born out of the pursuit for agency and connection in a world filled with increasing malice and peril.
Featuring new interpretations of previously released songs like “Flowering” and “The Night Washes Its Face” along with new tracks, Costilla weaves together a disparate array of folk sounds and stories, personal and imagined, into a singular earnest musical statement marked by its startling intimacy and bucolic, windswept grandeur.
Straight White Teeth, folk, folk indie, singer songwriter, melancholia, upcoming album, "Costilla", surreal sadness, catharsis, croon, artful vocal aesthetic, "Flowering" (album version)
On Costilla, the forthcoming album from Straight White Teeth, musician and writer Patrick McGuire exchanges sardonic synth-laden indie pop for sincere acoustic guitars and lush layered vocals to build affecting songs that are shaped by the comfort of nostalgia as much as they are by modern dread. With an unapologetic penchant for the pensive folk music of Nick Drake and Elliott Smith, McGuire croons about a surreal, real life encounter with a dog, suffering through a serious bike accident in Philadelphia, and criss-crossing North America in search of a home. Costilla, which derives its name from the rural New Mexican community where McGuire settled, was born out of the pursuit for agency and connection in a world filled with increasing malice and peril.
Featuring new interpretations of previously released songs like “Flowering” and “The Night Washes Its Face” along with new tracks, Costilla weaves together a disparate array of folk sounds and stories, personal and imagined, into a singular earnest musical statement marked by its startling intimacy and bucolic, windswept grandeur.
Straight White Teeth, folk, folk indie, singer songwriter, melancholia, upcoming album, "Costilla", surreal sadness, catharsis, croon, artful vocal aesthetic, "Flowering" (album version)
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