Album Review: Baths - Gut

Returning with a project that emphasizes the gut reaction, Baths brings the visceral, the tactile, and the heartfelt in the most evocative way possible. ‘Guts’ is Will Wiesenfeld’s uniquely entrancing album in his entire catalogue, pairing impeccably bubbly melodies with intricately adventurous performances and writing. Unpacking so many layers that could only come from the gut, overall unleashing Baths’ magnum opus.

There are so many ways one can look into relationships. One could look into something visceral, where the roughness and hedonistic feelings could sputter everything up to eleven. Yet the other could say that they’re looking for something intimate, where the smallest things could mean the world to them. There is a beauty in looking for what fantasy, ideal, and wants one could have, but what happens if all of these wants and needs start to shake people up and their yearning for love? Especially to those who are starting to get a bit older, where past experiences will make them turn inwards and reflect on what they now look for, and how they might think deeply about their identity that others might judge or question. It’s a thought that definitely comes through the most for gay people and the struggles that they may have in proceeding to feel something in sex and in relationships, where there’s this amount of intensity that will blow in their face as the social and political environments around them will put questionable perceptions that only exacerbates those intense emotions. For Will Wiesenfeld - also known as Baths - he certainly and absolutely gets all of it, something that he would explore in his recent release, ‘Gut’.

His newest record since 2017, ‘Gut’ serves to expand upon his unique production and melodic sensibilities that he has been carving since his past three records. Swimming through the bubbly rhythms and glitchy textures that have been his hallmark, but with this record, there is more organic instrumentation that allows the melodies to punch through, with so many strings, guitars, pianos, and drums that warmly blend together. Heading Baths’ fascinatingly idiosyncratic sonic standpoint into a miraculous combination of charming indietronica and sharp indie rock tones that amplify the terrific nature of these songs. The warping contortions amidst shuffling riffs and drums of ‘Peacocking’ harks the melodic curiosity of Bjork in the best way, the rattling percussions and rumbling basslines sliding in and out of ‘Homosexuals’ that gives a driving edge to the melodic composition, the gleaming string and piano swells that creates a prim vulnerability to ‘Cedar Stairwell’, the prominent string accents amidst stable rhythms allow ‘Verity’ to feel so aching, and the stuttering drum and synth melodies of ‘Governed’ that picks up its momentous weight everytime the strings and vocal layers get stacked up on the chorus sections.

Yet those melodies and production aren’t the only ones that managed to pick up such immense motions, as Baths’ vocal tone has amplified as well. Always sounding rich with the way he delivers his eccentric vocal singing, but just the way he evokes his emotions on this record just sounds so moving than he ever has before. Able to intensify modes of excitement and somberness impeccably well, even to the point that he started shrieking across the record, only putting more surprisingly manic tone. It’s a sense of openness that adds so much wonder to the charming melodies at bay, such as the steady progressions of ‘Eyewall’ that leaves anticipation for Baths to just sharply sing and shriek just before fading out with the cycling bass lines coming through on the back half of the song, the delightful staccato pianos and the excitingly stirring vocals of ‘Sea of Men’ that only gets more heightened as the song trods along, the glossy dance grooves of ‘Eden’ that is uplifted with those heavenly string movements, the glitchy yet pulsating grooves on the chorus of ‘Chaos’ that’s contrasted wondrously with the quaintly nimble verse melodies, the firmly emotional highs of ‘American Mythos’ that’s emphasized with the shambling percussion and grand violins, and the impeccable 7-minute closer of ‘The Sound of a Blooming Flower’ with its post-rock flair through the piano progressions that eventually proceeds to the back half of the song, opening up the path for the guitars and drums to smash through, accentuated even further with Baths’ vocal touches sounding more wrangled by the end of it all.

All of this extension to Baths’ striking flair as a singer, composer, and producer also doubles even further with the writing, an aspect of the record that exceedingly shines through. Delving through so much gay lust and romance where the openly horny details may provide a sense of defiant joy on the surface, but that lies the contrasting frustrations running across the arc, a frustration that could only come through the detail of how Baths’ is in his mid 30s and how the aspect of getting older can make the search for a meaningful connection become a bit tiring, leading to the hookups feeling like trying to reach out for someone that could be the one that he’d probably spend for the rest of his life, but not really. The process of aging also means that there is this sense of headscratching disconnect with everything around him, most mentioned on cuts like ‘American Mythos’ and ‘Governed’ where he just either doesn’t vibe with certain gay scenes and just might temper his own sense of wonder as he spends time accepting what he can’t gain. There’s an aching tenderness within the Baths’ earnestly adventurous lyrical style, where it paints so much intricacy to what lies in his path to yearning for something exceedingly heartfelt.

That sense of middle-aged yearning does get rather complicated as Baths’ ruminates on ‘Cedar Stairwell’ the “idealized” relationship that has been discussed and pushed to other gay people’s perspectives, one where there’s more emphasis on being respectable rather than being genuinely affectionate that doesn’t require compromising how much they have to showcase their relationship to other people. It’s an extended context that puts so much confusion to Baths’ in how he could even pull in such a wondrous relationship that his other friends actually managed to do, something that’s touched upon on ‘Chaos’ where he somewhat tries to be “respectable” but his gay mischief just tugs him along all over and leads to the hookups just not sticking for long term.

All of those emotionally intricate details eventually pile together and stick the heaviest upon ‘The Sound of a Blooming Flower’. Using part of the quote that was spoken by Bjork, Baths mediate on two things in particular that put the ending into a gorgeously heartwrenching note. One is reflecting upon yearning for someone that doesn’t see him eye to eye, where despite all of those emotions that he has harnessed, there’s this distance that crumbles all of that. But the second part is about confronting that religious environment that suppresses so much of his queerness and where anger just comes through in the open. So, when said distance and anger are now combined, it puts Baths to just accept that heartache but also embrace all of the visceral emotions that he might have shunned back then, but is so willing to let it out now. It’s crushing to the gut, but also sincerely aching to the heart.

With so many emotional layers, ‘Guts’ managed to captivate on so many levels, where the performances, compositions, production, and writing managed to embark on such adventurously impactful detours to the point that they’ve all ended up becoming impeccable. It may have been a long time since Baths managed to put another record out, but the return to create this record not only refined upon his idiosyncratic knack for melodies and lyricism, but he also managed to pull through with an album that simultaneously evokes so much thought, so much heart, and so much impulse. Going through with gut reaction might end up chaotic, but sometimes, if it evokes so many freeing emotions despite the consequences, we may as well cling to that impulse.

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