by Erin Bensinger (@_babybluet)
Pop melodies, grunge tones, folk fingerpicking, and post-punk song structures are patched beautifully and darkly into a cohesive record on Treadles’ And the Rocks and the Trees and the Empty Air Between. Each track unpredictably runs the gamut of sound, tone, and emotion, never staying in the same place for long, making the album a unique and rewarding listen.
And the Rocks starts strong with “Kiss of Death,” a two-minute grunge track whose creative lyrical pacing and shape-shifting rhythms snatch your attention instantly: “Your name on my lips / is the kiss of death I needed / Can you give me this?” Drummer Ian Paine-Jesam leads the track through a few changes in pace, landing on an aggressive drive of percussion and fuzzed-out guitars as a backdrop to vocalist and guitarist KC Stafford’s soaring, echoing voice.
Treadles pull their pop sensibilities into sharp focus on “Skin Crawls,” a glistening, bouncy track that sharply descends into punk chaos for periods of about twenty seconds at a time before resurfacing to the main pop theme. Layered guitars and keys bring a sense of lightness behind the song’s decidedly dark message: “You cut your teeth on the necks of your sisters / The sour taste of all the flesh you've blistered / raises bile to the tip of your tongue, so / you'll spread the fire with a sharpened thumb.” The song ends with a delicate, slow ringing of the keys, an unlikely hopeful end to a track whose lyrics make your stomach churn along.
A version of standout track “Cold” was featured in Saddle Creek’s Document Series in May of 2019, on a 7” b/w “Iron,” before the release of the full album the following December. “Cold” begins with delicately-plucked guitars, a gentle cymbal rhythm, and vocal harmonies that verge on full-on folk. With the slow introduction of darker tones, dissonant guitar riffs, and disorienting delay, the song morphs into something else entirely: before you realize it, KC is nearly screaming, backed by a chorus of response and feedback.
Across its thirteen tracks, the dark undersides of desire, trust, and friendship are laid bare using the motifs of venomous snakes and blistered flesh. These images call back to those on the full-length released by KC and Ian’s former band which ended suddenly in 2016, the ghost and impact of which is present but not overbearing throughout the lyrics on And the Rocks. On the whole, the album is an eclectic and masterfully-composed reflection on what it is to sift through the remnants of disintegrated relationships, and how it feels to catch your own reflection in the aftermath.