by Charlie Bailey (@hectic_skeptic)
Five years after the release of their self-titled LP, Teethe return with an expansively contained followup of profoundly melancholic southern slowcore with rips and tears that break through in gasps of collective hope. The Texas four-piece stick to their roots of raw home studio recordings sent out in bits and pieces to each other, preserving their distinct collaborative approach and allowing each individual member to bring their own voice, their own story. Fit for a breakthrough sophomore LP, Magic of the Sale features production from Xandy Chelmis of Wednesday and MJ Lenderman, Charlie Martin of Hovvdy, Logan Hornyak of Melaina Kol amongst other friends and musicians. Playing off of free-flowing feelings, it's nothing short of amazing the way that Teethe has learned to blend bits and pieces and parts from every direction into cohesive, enterprising slowcore ecstasy.
Both sonically and stylistically, Magic of the Sale is a clear evolution for Teethe, who dilute their unhurried approach with tinges of indie rock to create songs like “Holy Water,” one of the bands’ quickest, sharpest tracks to date. Collaborators push the sound into new directions while also feeling like a completely natural part of the process for Teethe. Throughout the album you can feel the weight of softly soaring and exhaling pedal steel and slide guitar, immersing you in the melancholic crooning country atmosphere. Compositionally, woodwinds and strings carry a liminal dreaminess on tracks like “Hate Goodbyes,” “Push You Forever,” and the closer “Matching Durags.” After so much time since Teethe’s last full-length, it shouldn’t be surprising how much they’ve grown, but Magic of the Sale is such a charmingly polished next step for the band that it really is incredible when listening alongside their self-titled.
Thematically, Teethe captures something intangible; a hopeful glimpse of nostalgia combined with undertones of a necessary urgency in confronting the heaviness of our world today. Modern anxieties and overthinking, apologies before even doing something wrong, the struggles of even getting out of bed on the track “Anywhere.”
Teethe is able to pluck specific images from the void and surround you in the smallest memories, like a fuzzy callback to comforting childhood summers. All the pain, uncertainty, and eventual moving forward that encompasses adult life softly suffusing an intangible something that makes us keep going. Magic of the Sale is a feeling. A fleeting feeling that you can only hope to hang onto. A languid smile, slow limp, feet drag, constant motion forward while carrying pieces of the past.
“Just gotta get out of here
Just make it all disappear
Anywhere, anywhere
Just gotta get out of bed
Just gotta get up and go
Anywhere, anywhere”