On the third track of Tigers Blood, Katie Crutchfield, the solo artist behind Waxahatchee, invokes David Foster Wallace. “This is water,” she sings, referencing the author’s famous commencement speech to the Kenyon College graduating class of 2005. When the speech was published as a print book after his death, it came with a subtitle: Some Thoughts, Delivered On A Significant Occasion, About Living A Compassionate Life. With Tigers Blood, Crutchfield argues that every occasion is significant, each moment we live worthy of examination and contemplation. This is what Wallace was getting at, too: We need to constantly remind ourselves to be present and engage empathetically with the world around us, and it’s hard, so hard, but it is, ultimately, worth it. “It’s blood loss,” Crutchfield continues. Living with that kind of hyper-awareness drains you, but it can also sustain you, as she realizes on the very next song. “Your love written on a blank check / Wear it around your neck / I was at a loss,” Crutchfield croons on “Right Back To It.” Crutchfield’s vocals are slow and deliberate, layered over country-inspired instrumentals that defy the genre. (Tigers Blood was nominated for Best Americana Album at the Grammys, Crutchfield’s first career nod at the annual awards show, and that’s about as close as you’re going to get to putting Waxahatchee’s music in a neatly labeled box.) The songs on Tigers Blood radiate empathy, but Crutchfield is open to receiving it, too, learning to navigate the world without getting lost in it. [Jen Lennon]
