Review: Laughing Gas
Blake Simpson reviews Wild Nothing’s Laughing Gas. Courtesy of Wild Nothing.
By Blake Simpson
Rating: 7/10
Earlier this year, Wild Nothing—an indie-rock band formed by lead singer Jack Tatum—released their fourth extended play, Laughing Gas. Laughing Gas comes nearly ten years after the release of Tatum’s first album under the Wild Nothing moniker, Gemini, and is a welcome addition to the Wild Nothing discography. The EP consists of five tracks; altogether, an uninterrupted listen would take around 20 minutes. I could rank each song in a list (there are only five, after all), but I’ll spare you that kind of review, dear reader, in favor of letting you pick your favorite tracks on your own.
Laughing Gas is Wild Nothing’s eighth studio project and does not stand out as anything terribly revolutionary relative to their albums and EPs prior. However, it solidifies what Tatum is ultimately trying to achieve with the Wild Nothing project. Wild Nothing falls neatly into the category of indie pop, with apparent dream pop effects (as demonstrated by prevalent synth swells), and this album does not deviate from that categorization.
A track such as the fifth, “The World is a Hungry Place,” is a perfect example of this sound. The saxophone and dreamy guitar lick are two familiar aspects of Tatum’s work on Wild Nothing’s previous projects, and a track like this would certainly be on a list of songs I would use to introduce those unfamiliar to Wild Nothing.
The first track, “Sleight of Hand,” is a perfect opener. Its dreamy soaring synths and pounding snare assure the listener that this is a Wild Nothing project but sets the tone for a new EP. “Sleight of Hand” is like the opening credits of a Bond film; it is dramatic and encourages you to settle in for a new set of songs in a very similar style to its predecessors. If there’s something to be commended about this album, it's the sequencing. The deliberate choice to put “Sleight of Hand” at the beginning was the right one.
My favorite track off of this EP is track four, “Blue Wings.” “Blue Wings” is reminiscent of Wild Nothing’s sophomore album, Nocturne. Its punchy, soaring bass brought me right back to songs like “Counting Days” and “Shadow” off of Nocturne. “Blue Wings” ties Laughing Gas to the signature Wild Nothing style very well, which is why it was my favorite track off of this EP.
Overall, Laughing Gas is not a groundbreaking album, but it is an important addition to the Wild Nothing selection. Laughing Gas is unique in the way that the other Wild Nothing projects are, but it is by no means a stylistic shift—rather the opposite. Laughing Gas solidifies what is already familiar to us about the Wild Nothing catalogue: the synth beds, the punchy drums, the soaring bass and everything else that makes Wild Nothing the band that it is. Laughing Gas is definitely worth listening to, though it does not live up to the high bar set by the band’s preceding albums.