By Daisy Sherwin.
Feeble Little Horse have released their third full-length album, bitknot, this week, a genre-bending whirlwind made up of eleven tracks and only a 25 minute run-time.
Bitknot is my first introduction to Feeble Little Horse, and I feel like I’m outrageously late to the party. Hailing from Pittsburgh, USA, Feeble Little Horse formed five years ago as a product of friendship between the bandmates. Bitknot discusses the ins and outs of modern online culture through the eyes of a woman, the swift run-time of the album mirroring how fast things change on social media. In the age of AI slop taking over creativity, I was delighted to find out that the album art was created by the band’s bassist and vocalist, Lydia Slocum.
When I started listening to Bitknot, I felt slightly bad that I wasn’t listening to it on an MP3 player, or an iPod Nano. The first half of the album sounds like it’s been dragged straight out of the early 2000s, you can almost see the glow of the incandescent streetlights if you squint hard enough.
One of the first tracks on Bitknot is “Poison,” which I already know will go triple platinum with Alex G fans. Something about the combination of the midwest emo-esque acoustic guitar riffs paired with the woodwind instrument in the background is incredibly satisfying. My only complaint is that “Poison” is only a minute and forty seconds long. A girl can only put it on repeat for so long.
Slocum’s voice gives the whole album a very twee feel, which I actually really enjoy alongside the instrumental sounds across the album. Ranging from shoegaze to electronic, Slocum’s voice drifts across genres seamlessly, and it’s incredibly refreshing to hear a female vocalist in such male dominated genres.
As the album progresses, Feeble Little Horse’s sound shifts from pop-adjacent to something different. The guitars get heavier, and elements of experimental electronica are sprinkled throughout the tracks. “DMT” is an example of genre exploration done right. “DMT” doesn’t feel alien compared to the rest of the album, and yet it forges a clear divide from the sound established from the start. I love the vocals on this track, Slocum’s gentle singing voice is replaced by ferocious chants at the very end of the track, solidifying the shift in genre. I just wish Feeble Little Horse had written more music for each track, especially “DMT.” It would’ve been interesting to hear the most consistent electronic track on the album explored in more depth.
Bitknot was written and recorded directly from the band members’ homes in Pittsburgh, making the entire project feel that much more personal. Guitarist and vocalist Sebastian Kinsler mixed the album himself, which makes me like the album even more.
Bitknot is a solid album from start to finish, and I already know I’ll be revisiting it in Autumn.
