ARCHER PREWITT - Wilderness

The guitarist of Coctails and Sea & The Cake returns with his fourth solo album, in keeping with the chamber sound of his previous work, "Three" (2002). Presenting his latest effort is a pencil-drawn cover by Prewitt himself, a noted cartoonist and graphic artist with a considerable following, especially in comics-loving Japan and in his hometown of Chicago. Ever since his first band, Coctails, and through the musical and guitar-driven flourishes of the Sea & The Cake albums, it was clear what musical direction Archer Prewitt favored: a soul-pop steeped in rich arrangements. So it's no surprise that the coordinates for placing "Wilderness" are the melancholy ballads of Nick Drake and the more grandiose, orchestrated sound of a Brian Wilson, a Todd Rundgren, a Van Dyke Parks. These names are invoked only to give a sense of Archer Prewitt's music. His skill as an arranger is nonetheless evident; his ability to fuse sound and emotion, playing with mood, along with his compositional instincts and the melancholy mood that pervades the whole album, all help make "Wilderness" a special record.

Organ, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, cello and a string section join what is the more rock-oriented core of bass, drums and guitar. This interplay between the two souls is hardly new for Prewitt, who throughout his career has often dusted off the modus operandi of greats from the past like Steely Dan, masters at weaving rock together with more "classical" music. "Leaders" moves between a first vocal section very close to the famous harmonies of the Simon & Garfunkel partnership (markedly evident in a chorus that couldn't be more pop) and a second instrumental section closer to an acoustic Pink Floyd. "O K.Y." is one of the very few more properly indie-pop episodes: an acoustic guitar riff, melodic care both in the vocal and in the perfectly chosen arrangement. A new and unprecedented musical touchstone emerges in this song: the Elliott Smith of the posthumous album. Indeed, it's hard not to hear, in "O KY" as in other tracks, the "arranging" lesson of "From A Basement On The Hill", an album whose importance is only now becoming clear.

"Go Away" and "Think Again" are delicate soul-pop ballads that, precisely because of their arrangement, hint at a promising future interest of Archer's in film scores. And indeed his chamber music, typical of modern chamber-pop, would lend itself well to scoring scenes of life. That lived life is, after all, also the dominant theme of "Wilderness": the death of his father in "O K.Y.", the post-9/11 sense of sadness in "No More" and "Way Of Sun", and all the emotional ups and downs of love. Prewitt is a melancholy songwriter, stubbornly intent on highlighting the dark side of feelings, and skilled at giving a dark tint to this latest, hopeless work of his. Anyone who, a couple of autumns ago, was lulled by the music of Maximilian Hecker's "Rose" will find in this "Wilderness" a worthy substitute.

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30/04/2026