Waxahatchee Revisits Raw Emotional Heartbreak On New EP

Though she’s best known as Waxahatchee, Katie Crutchfield has been making music as a part of a number of different projects for many years. As her four Waxahatchee records can attest, she’s best known for a grungy, garage rock sound. However, on her new EP, Great Thunder, Crutchfield keeps the Waxahatchee alias, but dials that aesthetic way back in favor of a more stripped down, intimate approach. Across six songs she originally recorded six years ago with her former band Swearin’, Crutchfield pairs emotionally raw vocals with just simple piano and acoustic guitar arrangements. The result is a strong showcase of her deeply personal songwriting that sheds new light on Crutchfield.

There is real, unfiltered heartbreak in these songs, and it’s a testament to Crutchfield’s songwriting and performance of them that we feel the same sting when we hear them. Standouts include the gut punch album closer “Takes So Much,” which finds her taking all the responsibility for the fallout of a relationship because she just can’t take it anymore. “Slow You Down” is another stunner, and the EP’s only kicked-up electric tune. It’s a short song, and the album’s most understated, but it quietly builds up to be one of its most emotional. Through hushed harmonies, Crutchfield sings a love song so pure and simple, about just being a source of comfort and serenity for someone.

We’ve known Crutchfield has a beautiful, complex voice, but Great Thunder offers her up as more of a powerhouse. Moments of rasp mixed with delicate high notes are balanced naturally and never feel too planned or over the top. We get the sense that Crutchfield just walked over to a piano, sat down and started playing. And from the sound of it, revisiting these songs awakened some buried memories in her. There’s a feeling of something being exposed here, and that vulnerability is passed on directly to the listener.