Brennan Wedl has been making music for a long time, but it feels right that only now is she finally releasing a self-titled album. Her debut for ANTI-, Brennan Wedl, is an amalgamation of the sounds that have shaped her musical coming of age, consciously or not, but it’s also a defining set that demands attention, repeat listens, and cranked-up volume. Wedl sings like someone empowered to be unapologetically loud and take up the space she has long deserved, ideal for capturing the disenchantment with a world that hardens young women long before it should.
For certain millennial women, Wedl’s songs will feel warmly familiar, lived-in and defiantly grungy explorations of figuring out who you want to be, what kind of lover, what kind of friend. Working with the team of Brad Cook and Katie Crutchfield (Waxahatchee) as producers, Wedl’s odes to girlhood — tinged with the divinely feminine grit of early-career Sheryl Crow, alt-country queens like Lucinda Williams and Kasey Chambers, and ‘90s rock heroines like Shirley Manson and Courtney Love — were in capable hands.
