Wednesday’s “Rat Saw God” Takes a Dark but Thrilling tour through a Troubled America

It’s easy to see why the shoegaze band, Wednesday, would choose to intersperse their latest album, “Rat Saw God” with lyrics about drug addiction, specifically opioids.

The group is from Buncombe County, N.C., where more than 10 million painkillers were prescribed to a population of 260,000, according to a study done by Red Oak Recovery, a rehabilitation center based out of North Carolina.

“Prescription painkillers and other opioids top the list of Asheville drug use, which is a chronic problem dating back several years,” Red Oak Recovery states on its website.

Red Oak Recovery states that in 2018, 265 residents experienced opioid overdoses, and that same year 79 residents died from unintentional opioid overdoses.

In the song “Chosen to Deserve” lead singer Karly Hartzman sings about the time her friends took Benadryl “until they could see shit crawling up the walls” and how one of her friends took too much and had to get his stomach pumped.

This lyrical storytelling goes on to share stories of an individual overdosing in a Planet Fitness parking lot, a woman’s house being raided as a mob front, a sex shop with a biblical name, and kids slumped over in pools with scoliosis.

The album feels almost as if it’s building to some dramatic conclusion. Telling stories that make the listener feel like they are in on some dirty secret between them and Hartzman. One might expect them to make some larger political statement on the matter.

However, with the song “Turkey Vultures” the group spends the first two minutes building up pressure in the first verse. As they cram as much as they can fit into it, the song releases it, not with a bang, but by letting it slowly dissipate into the breakdown.

They close the album with a depiction of life in capitalist America, painting pictures of a fallen highway sign, a dresser on the side of the road, people in line at Panera Bread and a swing set in a “big f*ckin’ field”.

Wednesday’s “Rat Saw God” feels like a picturesque work of art depicting life in America, in sporadic moments, we hear Hartzman’s own story slip through the cracks. In “Chosen to Deserve” she shares her worst stories with someone, so they know what they were, as Hartzman says, “chosen to deserve.”

This personal connection, combined with stories of life in America, connects the listener with the album in a way most artists can only wish to achieve.

You can listen to “Rat Saw God” in its entirety on Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp. Wednesday will also be performing at The Cactus Club in Bayview on June 27th, you can purchase tickets here