How would I describe CHELSEA WOLFE’s new record She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She out now via Loma Vista Recordings? I think this record is a piece of sonic art we will all experience differently, depending on our life experience, past and present. For me, I got immediate chills. Some of it feels ominous, like a warning, don’t fuck with Chelsea because she’s reached into the depth of darkness and survived. It’s slow and industrial. It’s mournful, explorative and experimental. It’s massive, but doesn’t neglect the smallest of details.
We were introduced to Chelsea Wolfe many years ago when we lived in Cali, and my impression of her was of someone who fit Plato’s Philosopher King archetype. She seemed introverted, someone who didn’t want to be the center of attention—but she had a compulsion to pursue her artistic gifts that inevitably put her on stage in front of thousands of people. The interactions I’ve had with her since have shown me she is a humble, creative person who wants to share the spotlight all of us shine on her with other creative people. I can’t imagine how heavy her rise to fame must feel some days.
She’s one of those artists whose songs deftly reach into your chest and rip open your heart and before you realize it all of your emotions are spilling out of you. And I think that comes from her own internal gaze, the way she examines herself and brings us along with her on that inner journey. Whether we understand what she’s revealing to us or not doesn’t really matter, because it’s more about us mirroring her with our own introspection. That’s really what She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She feels like. I know the words are poetry but I’m only half listening because I’m immersed in the feelings that keep rising up out of me, threatening to burst out onto the world through my eyes. She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She feels personal, like she’s letting me witness her metamorphosis, every tiny change that adds up to a new way of moving in the world. And since we’re all going through the same change, because being stuck in time and place is just an illusion, this record is full of realizations and memories for me.
Chelsea Wolfe is on the road right now with the equally earth-shaking Divide & Dissolve, so don’t miss them when they get to your town. If you need catharsis and sonic healing, this is the night for you.
