Evan Wright - Sound From Out The Window (2021)

Evan Wright's debut full-length album is a shimmering collection of country-tinged indie psychedelia. Recorded, mixed, performed, produced by Wright, the New Jersey-born, New York-based songwriter crafts a self-contained world, both nostalgic and stressed out, a personal and deeply compelling work that continually reveals itself with each listen.

The debut album from New Jersey based multi-instrumentalist, Evan Wright, may be called Sound From Out The Window, but the songs and lyrics contained within have a far more insular feel. Written and recorded entirely by himself, it is a record which creaks at the seams with ideas, as Wright throws a myriad of sounds and textures at a canvas in an attempt to conjure an aural document of what is going on inside his head. A gauzy loneliness threads through the record. One that could only have come from being created in isolation, and collecting the disorientating debris of four walls closing in.

On a passing listen, it may sound like an odd mix, but Wright displays a concentrated delirium as psychedelia and plaintive folk twist and chase like the hazy recollections of a preschool playground. At times echoing Monomania-era Deerhunter, and the glitchy yet relatable work of (Sandy) Alex G, Wright has a sound that is hard to pin down. On Just A Sign, heavily plucked guitars are swamped by ethereal swirls as he laments how unfilling the relentless passage of time can be. Turn The Other Way – the record’s boldest track – feels like unearthing a cult 80s college rock hit with the nostalgia only being compounded by the subject matter. The song finds Wright at a loss to explain how our friends become strangers, but defiant to move forward regardless.

Despite the fact that his voice rarely rises above a whisper – reminiscent of Sufjan Stevens at his most intimate – Wright manages to imbue each track with a knowing level of emotion. His master stroke is in lacing his laconic personal grooves with an all welcoming sense of understanding. An album for late night contemplation, Sound From Out The Window feels destined to accompany heavy eyelids that give way to blinking lights, as we drift off into Wright’s wonderfully weird and woozy world.