Wye Oak Releases New Track ‘the Tower’ [stream]

Wye Oak – The Tower SoundCloud

Even though Wye Oak’s new album, Shriek, isn’t due until April, they’ve made the wait a little easier by releasing “The Tower,” the album’s third track and a promising single. “The Tower” shows the Baltimore duo straying from the crisp folk instrumentation that characterized their 2011 LP, Civilian, and pushing instead deeper into synthwave territory. Ragged bass guitar, sharp snare and punchy synth tones help to give “The Tower” a cool, distant air befitting the song’s title. Similar to its teaser video, the song seems to spin in circles with ebbs and flows, but nothing resembling a climax or catharsis. It’s not particularly dancey. It’s not particularly mellow. It just is. “The Tower” never lets us get too close, and perhaps that’s why we find ourselves listening to it over and over again. Be sure to look out for Shriek in its entirety this spring.