Anders Parker Dabbles in Hill Country Blues and Krautrock on ‘Wolf Reckoning’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

Across his nine solo albums and going back even further to his time in Space Needle and Varnaline, Anders Parkers has borrowed from Americana, traditional folk, alt country and indie rock. His last album, The Man Who Fell From Earth, found him experimenting with string arrangements and pedal steel guitar. So, it shouldn’t come as a shock that once again Parker is smashing his musical template and this time looking to Hill Country Blues and Krautrock as inspiration for his seven-song Wolf Reckoning.

The result is beautifully eccentric and while not exactly accessible for all, offers a great pay off for those willing to give it a chance. Through swirling guitars and sweeping synthesizers and piano this record is probably one of Parker’s biggest yet in terms of how expansive these songs sound. He started writing Wolf Reckoning in New York’s Catskill Mountains before decamping to Brooklyn, Athens, GA and eventually New Orleans. 

It was in the Crescent City where Parker wrote the penultimate track, “Sunayta,” a remarkable song and one of the big standouts on the album. It also happened to be the last one he wrote for the record. Parker said recently that the song came to him as he was thinking about a Buddhist concept of emptiness, devoid of want of anything, and free from regret or shame about things in the past. A pretty heavy concept, but the music is light and ethereal with his vocals drifting above the instruments, making for one of Parker’s best songs yet in a long, long career. The record closes on the seven-minute long “Terlingua,” another solid track but one that is a bit intimidating at first given the length, but like the album itself is well worth the time spent with it. In pulling this expansive record together, Parker brought in Gareth Jones, who has worked with everyone from Depeche Mode to Nick Cave, to mix the album. At seven tracks, Wolf Reckoning carries on Parker’s streak of turning in consistently unpredictable music, but albums that are great, nonetheless.

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