October 4, 2024, is a quite big day for music releases. One of the more exciting New Music Fridays of the year, you will have Coldplay, Finneas, Little Big Town, and Leon Bridges all releasing new albums, with a few more artists coming out with new singles. Among the chaos is a new release from old-school heartland Rock band The Wild Feathers. Titled Sirens, and a follow-up to 2021’sAlvarado, this 10-track album is an exciting escapade for the band who have been around for over ten years. Known for producing a sound that blends Country music lyricism and instrumentalism with the flashy power and emotion of old-school Rock, they are a little like The Black Crowes, with a twinge like Hall & Oates, and an impossible-to-define Folk, Rock, Southern Alt, Americana sound.
Produced by three-time Grammy Award Winner Shooter Jennings, Sirens is an anthology of well-constructed Folk music. Out of their hometown of Nashville, the band is living up to their record label’s name New West Records, redefining what it means to write and perform bluesy Southern Rock. This is thanks to the creative output of Ricky Young, Joel King, Taylor Burns, Ben Dumas, and Brett Moore. Each member fills an important role in the band, especially onstage. An outlet they have used to promote the upcoming release, The Wild Feathers performed the first three songs on the album before its release on CBS Saturday Morning, and will be on tour starting November 9th with country artist Nathan Graham.
Before we get into the music, there is one minor issue, and that is the fact that the title of the album, as well as the cover art, feels a bit out of place. Sirens are mythological mermaids who lure men to watery graves by causing them to crash while entranced by their voices. This is not represented in the album itself, although some of the songs – “L.A. Makes Me Sad,” “Rendezvous,” and maybe “Giving Up,” as well as “Sleep for Days” – talk about women who led the storyteller astray. However, you might argue this is not enough to warrant the entire album being named after those mermaids. Nonetheless, The Wild Feathers use a classic myth as an icon for their new music. These are the tales of a cowboy who has lost his love, and while that is not a novel experience, it is even less an experience that can be attributed to Greek myth.
Overlooking the confusion this may cause, the new sound of The Wild Feathers is exciting and gives Heartland Rock a much-needed shake-up. Onto the music itself, Sirens has a healthy hint of Country twang in each song that shines through to connect the overall listening experience. It morphs the almost Alt-Rock album into a Country experience… which is what The Wile Feathers are looking for. They are experimenting more, and it is paying off. Creating an interesting, compelling noise with layers, it goes deeper than Country but does not settle as an Alternative or Yacht Rock genre. There is a mix of acoustic and electric guitar with steady drumming which creates a ground with the piano to allow the songs to build character that cannot be attributed to any specific style. It is not specifically a unique sound because of how easily it could be connected to Southern Folk and Rock music, but it is a successful new rendition of that old-school music. Crafting a classical sound, they update it with interesting lyrics and a contemporary choice not present in the music from the ’60s and ’70s.
While they are experimenting more with Sirens, the Texas band is still expected to have a Country backbone, and this is delivered with most of their songs; like the aforementioned “L.A. Makes Me Sad” and “Comedown.” The tracks have fun storytelling with smooth lyrics, topped off by the guitar, rising and falling with the chord progression. The background vocals do a great job of building the sound to something snappy and silky smooth as well on “Comedown.” It also has a clean guitar solo that provides the essential energy to make it more than a melancholy ballad.
Overall, Sirens is a strong contemporary Country album with a mix of upbeat feel-good songs, along with slower, emotional ones that connect in melodious coalescence. The Wild Feathers have begun to express mastery over their music, with tracks like “Stereo,” “Comedown,” and “Sleep For Days” standing out. That is why Cryptic Rock gives Sirens a 4 out of 5 stars.
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