"These songs are about being stuck in in-between places on a few levels. Being in the ambiguous place between the end of a relationship and whatever is next. Our country being between presidents and feeling the collective anxiety while everyone waits to see what kind of place this is going to be in the next few years. Being between album cycles right now but still touring on Don't You. Everything feels very up in the air.”
Wet, FADER
Brooklyn-based indie pop/rock trio Wet (Kelly Zutrau, Joe Valle, and Marty Sulkow) have recently released two new tracks before embarking on a stateside tour to support debut album Don't You (2015). Wet's brand of synthpop is unmistakably melodic, catchy and gratifying, even if their lyrical content nearly always dwells on deep emotional dissatisfaction and dysfunction. As FADER's Duncan Cooper has pointed out, the production of each Wet song is centered around Zutrau's highly evocative vocals, which soar, quiver and pulse with emotional complexity: "Everything Wet does is in service of that voice; production-wise, her bandmates mostly stay out of the way with soft pads, muted guitars, spare drums, and silence".
"The Middle" may remind you of "Deadwater"; Kelly Zutrau's emotionally charged vocals combine with hazy synthesizers to flesh out the agonies of being in an agonizing state of romantic limbo:
'Hanging on the fence nowWe're always somewhere in the middleAnd I can never tell you I don't want loveYou're always somewhere in the middleFree from our dreamsHanging on the fence nowWe're always somewhere in the middleAnd I can never tell you I don't want loveYou're always somewhere in the middleFree from our dreams'
Lyrics:
Zutrau's anxious confessional verse during the song's bridge stands out via its breathless urgency, effectively helping to recreate that atmostphere of intense vulnerability we've come to expect from Wet:
'How can I show you I love you?Now that they put me above youThey're enough to make you feel littleBut now we're just somewhere in the middleWaiting for direction, waiting on the bench nowHow could I not mention I was always temptedAlways in the end, now wait until we calm downI can do it better, better baby'
Zutrau's dreamy and delicate vocals come closer to the ground in the slower-paced "Turn Away", by virtue of being laced with more anger, desperation and frustration as she laments the fact that her lover is often uncommunicative and absent:
'You were always, you were always leavingNow I'm gone, you come backCome back to me believingSo why'd you say nothing at all?You leave me to figure out what went wrongGoing on and on about nothing at allTurn away, turn away when I need you more'
Lyrics:
The two tracks definitely feel like extensions of the 'recovering from a break-up' narrative that forms the core inspiration and driving force of Don't You. That sense of loss and uncertainty, the fear of loneliness and commitment, the anxieties and insecurities of interdepence - these are all themes for compelling songs. How will Wet's sophomore effort depart from them?
