Album Review: Great Thunder [EP] by Waxahatchee

Katie Crutchfield has such a vast body of work that, in returning to her early songs, she uncovers new worlds Katie Crutchfield, aka Waxahatchee, certainly has an enviable volume of output for her mere 29 years. It dates all the way back to her first musical outing with twin sister Allison. Aged just 15, the pair released an earthy folk project under band name The Ackleys.

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Katie Crutchfield's back catalog is ripe for rediscovery. Since embarking on her first musical venture--The Ackleys, co-fronted with her twin sister Allison, who now leads Swearin'--at age 15, Crutchfield has bounced between collaborative recording projects, released four studio albums under her solo alias Waxahatchee, and experienced no apparent dips in productivity. Now 29, Crutchfield is heralded for the dexterity and directness of her songwriting, but the sheer size of her oeuvre means that some of her songs remain unknown even to steadfast fans.

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Katie Crutchfield or Waxahatchee as she's more commonly known has always been a project of catharsis; her introversion spilling outward to captivate others. Throughout her records, whether they are solo-bedroom acoustic or fleshed out with bands, her narrative story telling has held it all together and we've seen into her life and her heartbreak. Her new six track EP Great Thunder is about as stripped back as it gets and with her southern drawl in plain view it harks back to her country roots.

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Arriving a year after 2017's Out in the Storm -- Waxahatchee's most defiant album of her first four -- the Great Thunder EP offers a drastic contrast to its predecessor's crunchy, full-band indie rock. Presenting Katie Crutchfield's sparest material since her 2012 Waxahatchee debut, the EP's six tracks were selected from the handful of releases she wrote and performed as half of Great Thunder, her duo with onetime Swearin' bassist and Waxahatchee touring drummer Keith Spencer. She reworks the songs here, stripping down arrangements to minimal piano or, in two cases, guitar, with occasional light touches of electronic keyboards, bass, and percussion.

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Katie Crutchfield's last Waxahatchee album, Out in the Storm, heard the singer-songwriter embracing a louder, rock-oriented sound, but on her latest offering, she takes a completely opposite approach.   A six-song EP, Great Thunder hears Crutchfield revisiting songs she crafted years back, with a group called Great Thunder. Brought out of obscurity and recreated with producer Brad Cook, the resulting collection is soft, sparse and stripped-down, if a little unfinished-sounding in spots.   The fuzzed-out distortion of Out in the Storm ….

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Around the time Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield was writing albums 'Cerulean Salt' and 'Ivy Tripp', she was also working on songs for her now-dormant experimental recording group Great Thunder, alongside Keith Spencer of Swearin'. Some of those songs faded into obscurity, until now, being resurrected and given new life in Waxahatchee's new EP 'Great Thunder'. The EP marks a return to Katie's folk roots with six stripped-back, solo tracks that have a warm and intimate feel.

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