WISHFUL - BLACK SWAN LANE

Wishful, by BLACK SWAN LANE, from the 2022 album, Blind. (Wanderland/Eden) Atlanta guitarist/singer/leader Jack Sobel has metamorphosized from a talented songwriter into something of a simmering solo genius. This is his/their 10th LP the public has way too little awareness of, and recent efforts have proved particularly remarkable excursions into his deep end of the moody/broody-yet-beautiful post-punk pool. BSL’s bearings don’t change, as they spin another decidedly gray but not gloomy, glistening-guitar-centric, atmospheric mini-masterpiece, traversing between The Chameleons (two of whom appeared on previous BSL LPs) and Joy Division, with space for The Church, Into Paradise, and Straightjacket Fits’ Melt. “Fragile” is a new “Intrigue in Tangiers,” with a colossal “I’ve no power to fight” chorus chord progression; and the late Martin Hannett himself could hardly improve on “Can’t Keep Me Quiet.” That track and the also up-tempo “Wishful” are especially invigorating, but it’s the apprehensive lushness, again, that’s the indelible attraction that’ll get you again and again. “Just swear not to haunt me in my dreams,” he sings on “Case my Mind.” He’ll haunt ours instead. - Jack Rabid / The Big Take-Over Magazine