Review by Beert
I don’t quite remember how I stumbled on to Year of October, but I’m certainly glad I did. This powerful three-piece hails from Nashville, Tennessee. They are self-described as “fuzzed rock soul,” which is pretty much dead-on.
Their album, Wastelands, is their third release. It came out in October 2020, in the midst of a pandemic. Even though touring has been (and currently still is) out of the question, it’s a thrill to get the chance to listen to this album and soak in the anticipation of seeing Year of October live in the future. Let’s dig in.
Track list:
Side A
Black Widow
Greevil
Venom
My Soul
Wastelands Pt. 1
Wastelands Pt. 2
Side B
Out to Dry
Cut Me Open
Fade Away
Buried REDUX
Wastelands starts out with a super fuzzed guitar reminiscent of heavy 1970s/early 80s influence. For some reason, T. Rex, but beefier, comes to mind. There is a solid rhythm pounded through the opening driving song. The vocal delivery involves some heavy bellows, which helps to forge the iron-feel of this album. It’s gritty, it’s dirty, it’s got some serious funk (not disco-funk, FUNK-funk), and it moves through the marrow.
As we move through the album, “Greevil” (https://yearofoctober.bandcamp.com/track/greevil) is like being crushed by a fuzzy boulder. Solid, slower, and beefy with reverb interludes. The drums pound slow and steady, adding a vital base layer, with a great rhythm that adds to the song in simplicity. I have heard the vocals compared to Amy Winehouse, but “Greevil” makes me think more of Eartha Kitt singing in a heavy rock phase. And that’s a wonderful thing!
The album slows down for “Venom” and “My Soul.” This gives the band a chance to showcase their ability to lie in a groove and just let the song naturally come out in every aspect. This is impressive on several levels. It allows the listener to just sit back and take it in. Both songs would fit on a great soundtrack as you race along a desert highway in the middle of the night.
“Pt. 1” sets the story as to why you are on this trek. “Pt. 2” gives you the adrenaline to drive all night in this scenario. This closing two-part song on side A would make a perfect one-sided ten-inch record. But ending a side of a full-length album is almost too killer. It makes you breath deep, as your pupils dilate. It’s like a mind trip without any chemical effects that are just created in your brain and in your soul. These two songs create a feeling of power, but not of anger.
Flipping the album over, we get into “Out to Dry.” Heavy, plodding (without being a trudge), and definitely a powerhouse of a song. I have to say, I really love the chorus:
Oh me, oh me, oh me
You’re gonna leave me out to dry
Steal my kisses and steal my heart
You’re gonna leave me to die
It is beautiful in its emotional brutality.
“Cut Me Open” is the most mellow song on this album. It’s controlled by the vocals, as a sweeping guitar paints a background landscape. And, yet again, the drums are the bedrock behind Year of October. Just a slower-paced, more clean, beautiful song.
“Fade Away” brings to mind All Them Witches, especially the songs from their latest album Nothing as the Ideal (my choice for 2020 album of the year). It’s just flowing and meandering. Year of October is continually painting musical landscapes and I love it. Lyrically, “Fade Away” is not a bright and beautiful song, as I read into them a sense of depression and feeling lost as time and life slips by until you notice a huge chunk of time has passed.
Days become one
They pass and you don’t know
Time no longer means much
When you’re stuck in this hole
And you fade away
“Buried REDUX” involves the back-and-forth of a ringing guitar and fuzz-force. A great way to end a powerful album.
When I first heard Year of October, I thought they would make a great band to do a theme song to a James Bond film, if James Bond films were way more intense. Let me put it this way. Year of October is the soundtrack to a James Bond that meets the Road Warrior film, taking place in the desert. It can only be defined as sonic. Wastelands delivers vast musical vistas while conjuring visions of heat waves rising from the desert. It is just plain fantastic.
Year of October have been continually writing and putting out live videos in their practice space throughout the pandemic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNpNUK96xZU
In all of my brief communications with them, they are super kind and just rad all around. Hell, my pre-order of Wastelands showed up broken in half. I was disappointed in the postal service (as a postal employee myself…and I do understand that sometimes things just happen in the post office). I just reached out to the band to let them know my excitement to get the album will have to sustain as I was going to order a replacement. They wouldn’t let me, and sent me another copy at their own expense, which certainly wasn’t expected from me, nor required by them.
Take the time to dive into their 3 albums. You won’t be disappointed.
