by Alex Reindl (@oldjoychicago)
Water From Your Eyes is a hard band to pin down. Since 2016 they have been creating a self-referential and in some ways self-contained musical universe that is unlike anything else and in the process have released some truly beautiful pieces of music. They walk a line between comedy and tragedy, tossing off musical pranks as easily and breezily as heartbreaking pseudo-ballads and anti-pop electronic “dance” music. Yet they manage to do it all with an absolutely straight musical face and the sincerity is what makes it work so well. They describe their music as “weed music,” and they’re not wrong about that, but it’s also a lot more. Water From Your Eyes has done a lot in the last six years, each new record has been an experiment, toying with the boundaries of music, expectation, and everything else that goes into “being a band.,” but it would be lazy to call them an experimental band. They are playful, but they’re certainly not frivolous. They are charming, but they’re definitely not saccharine. They are genuine, but they never take themselves too seriously. They do, however, take their music seriously.
Structure, their 2021 full length and debut on Wharf Cat Records is in some ways a masterpiece, tying together everything they’ve done before but also masterfully making something completely different. It’s a culmination, but it’s also new ground, and not just musically. It’s the first record multi-instrumentalist Nate Amos and vocalist Rachel Brown have made together as purely musical partners and not also romantic partners. It also builds on the past six years of work for Water From Your Eyes, concerned with the structure of a record and the expectations built on that as much as with the music itself. The name of the record is probably not an accident.
There is a distinct structure to Structure, and it’s apparent in the track-listing before you even listen. There are two distinct four part halves to the record that reflect each other. Each half begins with a three minute melody driven, more cinematic song (“When You’re Around,” “Monday,”) followed by a slightly unhinged electronic extended jam (“My Love’s,” “Track Five,”) then a spoken word piece by Brown (“You’re The Embers,” “You’re The Watching Fly,”) and finally closing with two different versions of “Quotations,” one in quotations, one without.
These songs mirror each other and reflect in interesting ways. “When You’re Around” is a much more classic pop song than “Monday,” which sounds like something that could be in an Alfred Hitchcock movie if it didn’t have the vocals on it. “My Love’s” is much darker than “Track Five,” but both are closer to WFYE’s earlier work than any of the other songs, truly living up to the “sad dance music” moniker they started from. “My Love’s” sounds like a dark dream wrapped up in the theme of an underground level in a Mario game, staccato strings stabbing through sickening drones and heavily distorted percussion. The underlying beat itself doesn’t change much, but the filtered vocals take the track places it wouldn’t reach on its own. “Track Five” is more openly New Order-esque, and the melody is incredibly strong. The song starts off with nothing but singing, and as the techno inspired percussive beat with moving saw leads kicks in the melody takes on a different hue. It soars over the beat beneath it. “The door saw me depart/ It works the same both ways/ The leaving lasts for days,” sings Brown in a plaintive deadpan.
One of the most interesting companion pieces on Structure are the two “Quotations,” one with quotes and one without. They are both technically the same song, and yet they couldn’t be more different. Water From Your Eyes is once again playing with the idea of what a song even is. Is it the melody? Is it the words? Is it everything? The name of the songs is interesting as well. Which one is the “real” quotations? Does it even matter? The lyrics and melody remain the same in both songs, but the underlying music could not be more different. It creates an eerie sense of deja vu: I’ve heard this before but I don’t know where. “Quotations” is comprised of distorted drums and jagged synth sounds, while ““Quotations”” sounds like Animal Collective and The Dirty Projectors with its calm and charming vocal music bed and percussion that slowly increases in intensity. The effect of both is mesmerizing and intellectually interesting in equal measure. It may be an inside joke, but if there’s a punchline it feels more sincere than anything else on the record.
It’s hard to even compare the record to something else. Amos and Brown proved they could do anything with their record of covers Somebody Else’s Songs back in January of 2021, which featured the meme anthem “Lose Yourself” by Eminem as track one, along with an (actually really amazing, seriously) version of “How Bizarre” by OMC, and these skills are used in much more interesting ways on Structure. The album opens with piano and slide guitar driven pop song “When You’re Around,” featuring warm harmonies, horns and a chord progression that would feel as at home on a Grizzly Bear record as it would Burt Bacharach. “I hear your voice and save it for later/ I get lost in the sounds when you’re around/ There’s water in my eyes and I’m alive,” Brown sings, their voice slightly and delightfully cracking on the word “later.” It’s a tongue-in-cheek reference to the band itself, but it’s also totally real and beautiful. To say this song sets the stage for what comes next would be disingenuous. The stage won’t be set until the record is over, and that’s part of what makes it so compelling. The songs that make up Structure are totally distinct worlds unto themselves, but when they are brought together the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
That’s what's fascinating about this record. It’s a lot like life, in that you don’t know exactly what to make of it until it’s all over. It’s reminiscent of the concept of karma and reincarnation: coming back to the same task at a higher level of consciousness or understanding and completing a cycle. The first four songs are the first cycle, and the second four turn everything around on itself. Form and function are subverted but not for the sake of experimentation alone… Amos and Brown have followed their instincts to a place that feels both comforting and surprising, familiar and new. William Faulkner said “The past is never dead; it’s not even past,” and Water From Your Eyes proves this on Structure, whether or not they intended to. What’s better is they did it without poetic tropes or heavy handed lyricism, although the lyrics certainly touch on things that are gone… they did it with the sound of the record itself, and with its structure. It’s a fascinating feat.