Wallgrin Relinquishes Control on Yet Again the Wheel Turns
The Vancouver-based composer shows off their playful side with luminous sophomore LP.
by Leslie Ken Chu
Wallgrin’s stirring 2019 debut, Bird/Alien, centred around the Vancouver composer’s violin and operatic vocals and into rich layers of doom-laden chamber pop. Its followup, Yet Again the Wheel Turns, features more rounded instrumentation that nudges Wallgrin towards new sounds and moods.
Mournful horns and ethereal harps accentuate Yet Again. And in one of the album’s most unexpected moments, guest Tristan Paxton strikes with a sky-splitting guitar solo during the climax of “PseudoReligion.”
With swelling strings and feats of vocal dexterity, from high-pitched whoops to throaty growls, the album mixes existential soul searching with playfulness,
Yet Again finds Wallgrin attempting to make sense of an absurd and arbitrary world. Ultimately, they accept the futility of pursuing universal truths. Despite Wallgrin’s existential soul searching, the album is playful, a vital reminder that it can be liberating to surrender to the unknown.
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