Seattle three-piece Wild Powwers can bring the hammer down with the best of them. The power trio of singer/guitarist Lara Hilgemann, bass player Jordan Gomes, and drummer Lupe Flores hit with an attack that slams riot grrrl energy, power pop, and heavy-assed garage grunge together to exhilarating effect. And Artist Home is stoked to premiere “Tricky,” the band’s latest single from their forthcoming long-player, What You Wanted (dropping in full on April 23).
“Tricky” represents further evidence of Wild Powwers’ knack for embedding strong pop instincts in their material, and their ability to turn the time-honored power-trio lineup on its ear. The band tames their customary rock muscle just enough to craft what might be their most unapologetically lovely track yet.
A shoegaze-worthy, chiming guitar riff opens “Tricky,” with Hilgemann’s voice floating, ethereal, above Flores’s evocative pulse of a drum pattern. The atmospheric, lush sonics give way to an irresistible chorus that wraps romantic longing (“See you walk by my door/wish you could stay longer than before”) in a monster of a riff. Then the guitars soar and chime once more, and before you know it, the band’s somehow crammed in enough hooks to fuel three pop songs by its end.
“Tricky” marks the fourth song the band’s released from What You Wanted. ”…Sucks” offers a lethal blast of careening rock, battered in exhilarating fashion by Hilgemann’s bone-curdling scream. The dangerous-sounding, sultry ”Bone Throw” sounds like top-down cruising rock imbued with a dose of hungry sensuality. And “Decades” finds Hilgemann and Flores harmonizing gorgeously amidst Gomes’ melodic, hyper bass and Flores’ skittering and ever-shifting drum work before it shifts into a blast of primal screaming.
If the rest of What You Wanted maintains the quality established by the songs they’ve already released, Wild Powwers’ latest album will be embedded in a lot of Best-of PNW music lists for 2021–ours absolutely included.
What You Wanted officially releases on April 23, and can be pre-ordered on Wild Powwers’ Bandcamp page.
