Vertigo is the sixth studio album by the American psychedelic rock band Wand, released on July 26, 2024 through Drag City. It is the band's first studio album since Laughing Matter (2019) and follows a period of touring, a live album release, and lineup changes that saw Wand return to a quartet. Recorded entirely in their home studio, Vertigo was developed from over 50 hours of improvisation and assembled through an exploratory, self-produced process.
Musically, Vertigo is as a psychedelic rock, alternative rock, garage rock and shoegaze recording. The album incorporates orchestral textures such as strings, horns, and woodwinds, and prioritizes mood over technicality. Critics highlighted its layered sound and evolving song structures, noting influences from Radiohead, Can, and Talk Talk. Vertigo was supported by a North American and European tour, during which Wand debuted much of the new material in live settings. The band also released two singles—"Smile" and "JJ"—ahead of the album's release, with early copies made available at tour merchandise stands.
Background
Following the release of Wand's fifth studio album Laughing Matter in 2019, Wand entered a five-year period marked by continued activity. During this interval, the band undertook extensive touring in support of Laughing Matter[1] and issued a live album, Spiders in the Rain, in 2022.[2] The live release captured the expansive nature of their performances during this era.[2]
After the band's lineup functioned as a quintet for their previous two studio albums, Wand returned to their original quartet configuration.[1][3] Keyboardist Sofia Arreguin and founding bassist Lee Landey departed, leaving a lineup consisting of Cory Hanson, Robert Cody, Evan Backer, and drummer Evan Burrows.[3] This retooling of the lineup is something the band seems to "love to do to breathe new life into their work".[4] This lineup change was credited with renewing the band's chemistry and contributing to the "visceral charge" of their subsequent recordings.[5]
In addition to group activity, lead vocalist and guitarist Cory Hanson also pursued solo projects, releasing two full-length albums: Pale Horse Rider (2021) and Western Cum (2023),[1][6] ranging from "cosmic country" to "glam guitar crunch".[5] These solo efforts were recorded with contributions from Wand guitarist Cody and new bassist Evan Backer.[3]
Recording
Vertigo was recorded entirely at Wand's home studio,[7] with the band self-producing the album.[6]Vertigo was recorded through an unconventional and highly exploratory process that marked a departure from Wand's previous studio efforts.[1] The album was developed from over 50 hours of live improvisations, which served as raw material for the band to cut, restructure, and reshape into the album's eight final tracks.[7][8] The writing process is described as "semi-improvised" by Spin.[9] In the studio, they adopted a fluid and collaborative approach to composition and recording.[7]
Throughout the sessions, band members frequently shifted roles, embracing what has been described as "an intuitive, strangely ego-less approach" that allowed them to venture into unfamiliar sonic territory.[1] Songs were constructed by building around improvised jams, engaging in extensive editing, and allowing some passages to evolve organically.[7] The recording process is described as "yield[ing] material that bristles with strange beauty and a sense of constant discovery".[5] It resulted in compositions that are "thoughtfully constructed" and "anything but straightforward".[6]
Orchestration was incorporated during production,[1] including string arrangements by bassist Evan Backer,[3] as well as the inclusion of horns and woodwinds.[1] The production emphasized atmosphere over technical display, continuing the post-rock-influenced improvisational style hinted at in their 2022 live album Spiders in the Rain.[3] Hanson's high tenor vocals are featured prominently, often floating over darker instrumental textures. The album's production choices reflect a shift toward mood-driven songwriting, with the band favoring subtlety and cohesion over overt complexity or grandeur.[1]Vertigo reflects a deliberate paring down of material, with a focus on mood and tone rather than overt ambition. The band has described this as finding a "new gravitational center", suggesting a recalibration of their creative identity as they entered a new phase of development.[1] The sound includes saturated guitars and motorik rhythms, along with additions of brass and other borrowings from jazz.[8]
"Hangman" incorporates shoegaze elements, emphasizing the genre's eerie dissonance rather than its usual shimmering sounds. It contains reverberation and repetition.[1] The track has a disorienting quality, with instruments shifting in and out of focus in irregular patterns.[1] "Curtain Call", alongside the latter track, also contains reverberation and repetition[1] and unfolds slowly from tremolo-laced feedback into sweeping string passages and delicate synth textures.[12] The track serves as an extended coda to "Hangman",[3] maintaining a similar tone to it but adds strings, keys, and synths.[7] "Mistletoe" is described as "the strangest song" on the album[10] or "one of the more wandering tracks".[12] With an "inharmonious" texture,[1] it builds from a heavy Zamrock groove into a dense and dissonant swirl of horns and electronics.[12] It is also compared to experimental Radiohead attempting "A Day In The Life" by the Beatles, with a "blissful slide" into "wild orchestral melodrama".[13] "JJ" serves as a centerpiece, building patiently toward a stunning crescendo that was likened by Zeno van Moerkerke for A Moon Shaped Pool by Radiohead, with Hanson's voice gliding over staccato strings and shifting textures.[10] The song is about someone who realizes they have wasted valuable time being trapped in their own thoughts.[1]
"Smile" features "crushing" riffs and a "mysterious edge-harkening" evoking of the Jim O'Rourke era of Sonic Youth.[14] It has forlorn lyrics and slowly fades out after an over six-minute runtime.[1] It introduces a louder dynamic with distorted rock riffs, evoking elements found in the work of Bardo Pond and the Smashing Pumpkins during their Siamese Dream era,[12] or practically a half-speed cover of Pavement's "Summer Babe".[9] "Lifeboat" has a "hypnotic" texture,[1] incorporating dreamy horns, plinked piano keys,[9] and elements reminiscent of 1970s Latin and soft rock.[9] Its arrangement builds slowly, with swirling synths, horns, and reverberating guitars,[7] evoking the sensation of a leaf drifting across still water for much of its runtime.[6] Critics noted a sonic palette likened to a fusion of Santana and Steely Dan,[9] with the track gradually shifting into an ominous folktronica tone.[13] "High Time" is a seven-minute[6] alternative rock track.[12] The song features ranting, feedback-heavy guitars[10] and waves of distortion, and layers of noise that culminate in a climactic section with rich vocal harmonies and strings.[1] Described by Holly Hazelwood as a "towering" and "noisy song", it channels the wall-of-sound aesthetic associated with Spiritualized.[6] "Seaweed Head" shifts toward art rock and influences of experimental music, blending pulsing electronics with both soothing and unsettling tones.[7] Hanson's vocal delivery is described as both "weary and at peace" over "quivering strings" and a gently propulsive rhythm.[5] Comparisons were drawn to Loaded-era the Velvet Underground,[9] particularly in the song's opening drift, which mirrors the calm of "Lifeboat".[6]
Release and promotion
Vertigo was released in July 26, 2024 through Drag City.[3][15] The album marked Wand's return to studio recording after a five-year hiatus following their 2019 album Laughing Matter.[1] On May 7, 2024, Wand announced the release of their new studio album, along with the first single "Smile".[16] The single "JJ" was released in June 17.[17] The album cover can be seen by Langdon Hickman as a reference to A Moon Shaped Pool or Crack-Up by Fleet Foxes.[4]
To support the album, Wand launched a North American tour in the summer of 2024, with performances spanning club venues as well as stadium shows where they opened for Red Hot Chili Peppers.[18] The tour ran from July through September across North America, followed by a series of UK and European dates in the fall.[18] The band previewed material from Vertigo during these live performances. A notable show at Bowery Ballroom at New York City, New York on July 18, 2024 featured a setlist heavily composed of new songs. These live renditions were described as having a more forceful presence than their studio counterparts and omitted the orchestral string arrangements found on the album.[18] Copies of Vertigo were also made available for purchase at merchandise stands during the tour, prior to the album's official release date.[18]
Vertigo has received acclaim from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, it received a rating of 81 out of 100 based on nine critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[20]
The resulting album is what PopMatters' Patrick Gill considered it to be a "modest output", with the band deliberately paring down the material to create a more restrained and at times subdued listening experience.[1] Ryan Meehan from Pitchfork portrays Vertigo as elusive and indirect, its songs "excavated" rather than composed. The album, he writes, "is a second debut of sorts", and likens its ambition to Pygmalion or Spirit of Eden—works built from "metamorphic parts".[3] A Glide Magazine review of lead single "Smile" called the album their most ambitious yet and "a noir-tinged record looming with tension, theatrical elevation, and lush orchestration".[14] Editors at Stereogum chose Vertigo for Album of the Week, with critic Chris DeVille, writing that this release "leans into the ensemble element by building its songs out of the best parts of jam sessions", resulting in "a set of patient yet explosive guitar-powered epics that reaffirm Wand's stature as one of underground rock's hidden treasures".[11]
Bill Pearis of BrooklynVegan called the music on Vertigo unlike the band's previous releases, being their "most expansive, subtle and varied record yet and a bit of a swerve from 2019's flashy knockout Laughing Matter".[18] Peter Watts wrote for Uncut that the songs still reflect their freestyle roots, making Vertigo the band's "most exploratory album".[21] Writing for Mojo, Victoria Segal praises Vertigo as a bold continuation of Wand's willingness to venture into unstable, experimental sonic territory.[13]AllMusic's Fred Thomas says that Vertigo strikes a steady balance between catharsis and ambience, unfolding as a "quietly adventurous album" that "never feels like it's pushing too hard in any one direction", even as it shifts from "blown amplifiers" to "bubbly flutes".[12] Belgium-based magazine Indiestyle rated the album a score of four and a half out of five stars with Zeno van Moerkerke writing that it is an unexpected evolution from Wand's earlier, tighter sound. He notes that the arrangements are masterfully executed, the album "sounds beautiful" and the melodies "however simple, hook themselves into your skin".[10] According to Langdon Hickman from Treble, the arrangements are considered "sophisticated", and there was an aim to make things feel "cinematic".[4]
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