Slow Pulp Went to a Cabin in Wisconsin and Came Out With One of 2023’s Best Rock Records
variety.comEthan Shanfeld When it came time to write Slow Pulp’s sophomore album, in early 2021, Emily Massey decided to isolate herself in a cabin up in northern Wisconsin. “The first day, I full-body cried for hours,” the singer tells Variety. “I realized when I got there that I’d never been that alone.
It was winter, so I couldn’t go anywhere outside the house. I felt trapped.” Disconnected from the world during the throes of the pandemic, Massey spent her days writing songs on the guitar and recording demos on her laptop.
The cabin had no internet connection, but it did have an old CD collection left behind by the owners. That’s where Massey discovered Lucinda Williams’ “Essence.” “It just felt like an album that I needed to hear at the time,” she says of the 2001 effort, Williams’ follow-up to her critically revered, Grammy-winning “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.” And, as if via osmosis, Williams’ acoustic sparsity, country twang and slide guitar seeped into Slow Pulp, a band typically characterized by loud, distorted electric guitars and bedroom pop aesthetics.
As she became more enamored with Americana music, Massey laid the foundation of “Yard,” which the indie rock quartet released on Sept.
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