Waxahatchee's fifth album, Saint Cloud , arrived in late March of 2020, released into the eye of the pandemic storm. It was a record that saw the project’s mastermind, Katie Crutchfield, move away from the various shades of indie rock she’d previously been known for and instead circle back homewards, towards the country-tinged Americana that informed her Alabama upbringing. Critics quickly and universally agreed that the record was a modern masterpiece, a gorgeous rumination on sobriety, maturity and the complexities of long-term relationships.
And yet, there was the risk that the album would be swept away by the strangeness of 2020, perhaps forgotten without Crutchfield ever having had a chance to take it on the road. READ MORE: 'Actually insane': Sabrina Carpenter fans issued with warning as tickets for UK tour and Co-op Live show go on sale She did finally make it to Manchester last April, playing a solo acoustic all-seated show that saw her play most of that record and, promisingly, three new songs that suggested that her next album would not only be in the same vein as Saint Cloud , but of a similarly exceptional quality, too. Waxahatchee at New Century Hall in Manchester (Image: Romy Caton-Jones) That was confirmed back in March when she put out Tigers Blood , a record which refined and subtly expanded the sound of her last album and confirmed as one of her generation’s finest songwriters.
Lyrically, much of the new album is concerned with self-acceptance and pers.