There’s an easily understood message inside of “Eating the Egg Whole,” the second song on Wild Pink’s fifth album: “Sometimes a dream ain’t meant to be lived in, it’s meant to be forgotten.” Impermanence is a fact of life—holding onto something fleeting usually isn’t healthy. Pretty universal message. You might miss this kernel of wisdom, though, as frontman John Ross spends the rest of the song wrapping it in flashy sports metaphors.
He lays out Michael Jordan’s late-career arc, from the 1997 offseason to his 2003 retirement, each bookend pegged to one specific detail (an iconic beret, “freedom fries”) and one sports franchise shakeup (the Washington Bullets becoming the Wizards, the Montreal Expos becoming the Washington Nationals). After a few listens, the connection to the “nothing’s forever” theme becomes clearer, but Ross’ choice of evidence remains uncharacteristically idiosyncratic.
This is Wild Pink’s most driving, propulsive album, but I have no idea what it’s about. Within the first seconds of opener “The Fences of Stonehenge,” Ross finds a meaty, full-bodied guitar sound that he likes, and he barely tweaks a knob over the next 38 minutes. A Wild Pink album hasn’t had this level of consistency since 2018’s breakout Yolk in the Fur. 2022’s ILYSM was particularly eclectic, darting between knotty folk-rock, electro-pop, and doomgaze, held together by a unifying focus on Ross’ recent cancer diagnosis. Dulling the Horns is the exact opposite: straight down the middle, despite lyrics that shoot off in every direction.
A few months before ILYSM, Ross debuted a heavier, distorted sound on the non-album single “Q. Degraw,” which bled into that album’s crushing “Sucking on the Birdshot.” J Mascis also guested on ILYSM; Dulling the Horns sounds a bit like the Dinosaur Jr. guitarist produced a Bruce Springsteen album. If you’ve been coming to Wild Pink for gentler, more emotionally open music, this album might initially scan as abrasive, but the way it contrasts with ILYSM’s aimless, saccharine moments provides a new lease on life. Ross splices loud riffage into the heartland rock that dominated Yolk in the Fur and 2021’s A Billion Little Lights, and at the tail end of the Lost in the Dream decade, it’s an injection of sorely needed excitement into an inherited sound.
Sometimes the results are stately and sweeping, as on “Disintegrate,” which lets Ross’ swathes of fuzz serve as a backdrop for Adam Schatz’s saxophone leads. “The Fences of Stonehenge” might get by with only staccato acoustic strums, but Ross’ grimier electric tones add real strut, a kind of rock’n’roll swagger that’s never been a Wild Pink calling card. But Dulling the Horns is at its best when it’s piling on layers and stripping them away with little warning. “Cloud or Mountain” begins with a pristine wall of early-Weezer power-pop riffage, then pairs it with a glockenspiel that dusts the lead melody with Born to Run-style confectioner’s sugar. After a mid-song pivot, the guitars get countryfied and lo and behold, a pedal steel pops up.
Ross’ frequently inscrutable lyrics contrast with the invitingly crunchy music. “Catholic Dracula,” ostensibly a song about Ross’ relationship with religion, features a line that belongs in a “Gnosticism for Kids” book: “Way before he ever was a bat/Dracula was a Catholic too, in fact.” Like “Eating the Egg Whole,” the rest of the song contains a few more obvious deeper truths, but once again, the method feels at odds with Ross’ oeuvre. Dulling the Horns is not a wild left turn, but it’s simultaneously weirder and more fun than anything in Wild Pink’s discography. In rawk poet mode, Ross seems less hunched over: wind in his hair, turning his amp up, letting the words fall where they may.
