Eaves Wilder – 7th Level Music

Top 25 albums of 2023: #’s 25 – 21

Now that 2023 has passed us, it’s time for my annual countdown of some of my favorite stuff of the previous year. Who made the top 25? Read on and discover!

#25: Cavaran – Nights at Josan

Named after a bar near their recording studio they’d frequent after recording sessions, Belgium’s Cavaran returned with a solid record of desert / stoner rock that was a badly need dose of rocket fuel into our collective veins.

#24: Gimenö – Movement Remixes

Just like 2022, there was a lot of good EDM released last year, and this album of remixes by pals of DJ / producer Gimenö was among it. There isn’t a bad track on here. It’s all floor-fillers.

#23: Big Miz – Where I Belong

Another excellent EDM EP, this one from Big Miz on the Homage label. Miz combined house with trance and does it with subtle, slick skill.

#22: Bodywash – I Held the Shape While I Could

Shoegaze made a fine return this year, and that makes me happy – as did this cool record by Bodywash that bathes you in guitars, reverb, and clove cigarette smoke vocals.

#21: Eaves Wilder – Hookey

Another fun EP, this one about break-ups, screw-ups (in the world of mental health care), and drink-ups. Eaves Wilder might be “the next big thing.” Get in on her stuff now and become one of the cool kids.

Who makes the top 20? Come back tomorrow to find out!

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Eaves Wilder – Hookey

Referencing both skipping school classes and filling songs with hooks, Eaves Wilder‘s debut EP, Hookey, is a fun record about teenage life and preferring to spend one’s time doing what you want instead of putting up with other people’s crap.

I mean, “I Stole Your Jumper” pretty much flips the table on a lover who made her feel bad. She’s done with that business, and her chugging 1990s alt-rock guitar chords only seem to fuel her sneer and desire to kick someone in the groin. Plus, she gets a new jumper out of it.

“Are You Diagnosed?” is a standout as Wilder sings about her treatment at a hospital and how that treatment was affected by her status of whether or not she was officially diagnosed with anything. “You could be dying up close, but are you diagnosed?” she sings, but you’re not going to get treatment until stacks of paperwork are completed and you’ve been through a maze of appointments, phone calls, and visits with people who have no idea what you’ve already done. The hooks in it are killer. “I’m sick of asking for help,” she says. Who wouldn’t be?

“Morning Rain” is a tale of skipping school because it’s just too lovely outside to be cooped up all day. Her guitar work in it has a sort of melted sound to it that’s difficult to pull off, but she does it well.

In “Connect the Rooms,” Wilder sings (in a somewhat distant voice sprinkled with reverb) about making music while elevating in her room thanks to certain substances. It’s clearly the most psychedelic of the four tracks and could easily earn her a spot at a Levitation festival if she wants.

This EP is the start of something big. It’s the kind of record you want to get now so later, when she’s playing big stages, you can say, “I’ve been following her since the Hookey EP.”

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Eaves Wilder releases her second single – “Morning Rain.”

London-born-and-raised musician and producer Eaves Wilder presents her second single, “Morning Rain,” via her new label, Secretly Canadian. Wilder fuses “indie rock tropes with pop to create a raucous yet melodic sound” (Clash). While her first single, “I Stole Your Jumper,” was described as “cool and vengeful” (Brooklyn Vegan), “Morning Rain” airs more on the melancholic side. It finds the 19 year old toying with the struggle of returning to school. Growing up, Eaves spent more time doodling pianos in her workbooks than paying attention to her teachers. Frustrated with having to allow another person to take control of her day, she’d long to be at home, writing music in her bedroom. “For me, school was something that postponed life from starting. I spent the entire time trying to get out of it. You spend 18 years memorizing so much information and then they turn around and expect you to know who you are and what you want, but you’re not given a chance to really figure that out.”

Watch Eaves Wilder’s “Morning Rain” Lyric Video

Eaves Wilder began songwriting around the age of eight, harnessing an early obsession with ‘60s Motown records and the left-field pop of Lily Allen. She plastered pictures of her idols on her bedroom wall, but realized in her mid-teens that it was lacking any women. From then on, she made an active effort to get into more female musicians, coming across the riot grrl movement, a discovery that completely changed her life.

She began filing her own teenage obsessions into her collection and while doing so, uncovered the ugly sides of the music world, but also empowerment in the punk feminist fanbase; how artists took ownership in male dominated spaces, and what a powerful tool community could be. Online, and in real life at shows, Eaves saw these elements in the contemporary fan bases of the bands she loved. She became captivated by the idea of reclaiming the worth of the fan girl (which she considers herself to be) and how one can be hyper-feminine without the baggage that comes with it.

Since that self-realization, Wilder has been recording, producing and releasing her own music since the age of 16. Her honest and deceptively cutting lyrics have earned widespread praise from UK tastemakers, including The Sunday Times, NME, Clash, DIY, Dork and The Line of Best Fit, which hailed Eaves as “a star on the rise” (The Line of Best Fit). Signing to Secretly Canadian in 2021, something she waited until she was 18 to do because she thought it would be “uncool” to have her mom sign her record deal for her, Eaves has now swapped her bedroom for the studio, spending 2022 co-producing a run of new music with Andy Savours (Arctic Monkeys / Black Country, New Road / Rina Sawayama).

Watch the “I Stole Your Jumper” Video

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]