Released on Team Love records this new album Wishbone by Darci Phenix is a welcome discovery in a very barren winter for new music.
We begin in Arkansas, with a quietly whispered indie folk song which sets the sweetly melancholic tone of the record. She asks the state to ‘love me back’, hoping to belong somewhere.
Musically there’s a lot of cool little touches in the background of these songs, like the mix of pedal steel and percussion in Hospitality. This is an oddly beautiful song – with that killer line fucked up people make fucked up friends showing the wisdom of this young songwriter.
Songs like In Vitro and Bruised Knees mix the delicate and brutal lyrically, while the musical arrangements with brass and strings add unusual textures. Walking, Talking, Sleeping creates a strangely dreamy atmosphere, working a kind of hypnotic magic over the listener.
Title track Wishbone has an unflinching eye for the truth and concludes that creating something beautiful might be the only way to fight back against this ugly world. The album finishes with a simple offer of friendship on the song No Matter What, a little lullaby of light in the darkness.
Listening to Wishbone is like slipping into an alternative, fairytale world filled with a mix of childlike wonder and unsettling truths. An intriguing and inviting listen from a promising talent.
Highway Queens 
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