Not a year after releasing sophomore full-length The Knot, Wye Oak return with a quick EP that handily bests it. My Neighbor/My Creator marks the first time Baltimore's Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack have shared production reins with somebody else, all five recordings here having been touched by Chris and Mickey Freeland, two brothers who've also got experience with the Baltimore hip-hop set. The latter can be heard here on the EP's final track, a reimagining of The Knot's "That I Do" that includes a curveball that will likely knock those familiar with Wye Oak's dream folk on their asses. Amid now cavernous low-end, sandwiched between synths, sirens, and Wasner's Sarah McLachlan-esque vocals (not corny at all!), Freeland raps. It's a brave experiment, but the verse sounds out of place, one ill-advised misstep that's buffered by the four pieces of new material Wasner and Stack also recorded.
Those are all fantastic. "My Neighbor" is a rollicking strummer that meets Wasner's voice perfectly. The guitar tones boast nice crunch, Stack's drumwork adds just as much texture as verve. Where Wye Oak have sounded fairly correct and erect before, here they sound completely relaxed. Same goes for the clean chords of "Emmylou", which at times, despite that harmonica, sounds like it could have been lifted from a Death Cab demo. Those first two songs sit nicely atop the much more quiet second half of the EP, a setting in which Wye Oak usually seem most capable of mesmerizing.
"My Creator" sets out to be a fingerpicked ballad before finding an extra gear by way of some very subtle saxophone coupled with organ. Overall, the duo have made good use of keys here more than in the past, a layer that serves them well. "I Hope You Die" has been up for freeload since March, and it is to date one of Stack and Wasner's finest moments. They don't make their way into a noise wash choosing instead to build upon a simple keyboard pulse, layer by layer, twirling synth to softer sax, until the song feels as though it's floating a few inches off the ground. When playing with negative space like they do here, Wye Oak seem to do the very same. Not at all the kind of EP that serves as stopgap or reintroduction, My Neighbor/My Creator stands up on its own.They're still at their best when milking silences.
