by Anna Solomon (@chateau.fiasco)
Tuxis Giant lead singer and guitarist Matt O’Connor says they don’t love the idea of The Old House being their pandemic record, and I can’t say I blame them, we’ve heard enough of those. Even though the album’s eleven songs were recorded in a studio in Boston, alongside much of last years In Heaven EP, the dusty Vermont Cabin they were written in by O’Connor throughout 2020 couldn’t quite be shaken out of the record. The arrangements rarely consist of more than electric and acoustic guitar, bass, and drums, and the lyrics move between pastoral scenes and mundane tasks, like “from the cliff, see the boys catching fish … with hair as a long as a witch, I do the dishes and laundry” on “House by the Sea”.
Even if The Old House is generally stripped back, there’s plenty of variety. Moments like “Cub Scout” are more brash and heavy, whereas “I Saw the Light” is pure folk, consisting only of acoustic guitar and vocals. Most songs find some middle ground, like the Weakerthans-esque indie of “The Cut,” or the dark roots rock of “Video Game”. O’Connor and guitarist and backing vocalist Eleanor Elektra sound together like Low’s Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, although even most of the album’s more slowcore influenced moments like “Damien” and “Daughter of the Pines” aren’t as bleak as much of Low’s work. The only track to fully embrace the gloom is the haunting penultimate track “Bent.”
The Old House, like its name would imply, feels familiar and comforting, even without having to be familiar with Tuxis Giant’s back catalogue. It’s not an overly downtrodden record, or one that wallows in its isolated origin, but there’s a lot of loss and unease running through it. In the album’s final moments, O’Connor admits that they’re “scared shitless,” but you can tell they haven’t lost hope.