The stark opening of guitar and voice on ‘Home In This World’ from Rowena Wise’s new album Bad Things Feel Good* pulls you straight in emotionally and with the sense that this is an intimate concert just for you. The sound of the room resonates with the acoustic guitar and tremulous nature of Wise’s voice as it aches with the tragic beauty of the recurring line “I don’t feel at home in this world anymore”, a feeling made even more plangent with the addition of cello accompaniment.
This is Wise’s sophomore album following on from 2024’s Senseless Acts of Beauty (Wise really knows how to construct a great album title) which “explored love, loss and the slow rebuilding of self”. Bad Things Feel Good* follows on with a deeper dive into “the pain of transformation, and what it means to be flesh and blood”. The title itself describes to me that feeling when we’ve been wrestling with the shitty things life throws at us but find a warped comfort in the familiarity of living with the pain or sadness. This is Rowena Wise working through life’s quicksand in order face up to hard truths and “be at peace with the messiness of life“.
Building on that naked opening we get the introduction of lightly fuzzed electric guitar, bass and drums on ‘More Horizon’ as Wise sings “I’m on the edge of something. Looking over”, and we can see that vanishing point in our mind’s eye as we hover between pessimism and optimism. Also, the unexpected minor chord dropped into major chords is a wonderful detail that resonates with the care taken in writing such amazing lyrics. ‘Blood Ties’ quickens the pulse in a song about the vulnerability of relationships and how you need to open yourself to the discomfort of experiencing someone else’s pain and not judging something outside your own frame of reference.
Pop may be baroque with grand, and often empty gestures, but the best folk whether it’s alt, pop, rock etc. can focus huge emotions into poetic fragments and Rowena Wise creates beautiful vignettes of real life with sensitivity and compassion. There are moments on the album, such as ‘Home In This World’, ‘Sum Of Two’ and ‘Days Ahead’, where the simplicity of voice and guitar or piano is so spellbinding it’s almost too much, like witnessing a stranger crying on the train. Rowena Wise easily moves across the bridge between indie folk and alt rock so when you when you wake from the spell of ‘Sum Of Two’ into the Omnichord and guitar fuzz of ‘Diamond In The Rough’ it’s like sunrise after a clear night sky; especially as it crescendos towards the end.
The unadorned voice is rare in music as most singers chase truth and perfection with reverb or the sly nudge of autotune. Rowena Wise needs no such adornment to convey a range of emotions. This is mouth to microphone intimacy. She can stay low to the ground or soar high with a superpower that slows time and allows the listener to revel in the moment and be transported into her emotional landscape. The tunes she weaves are beguiling with harmonies that are so perfect you hear one voice not many. It’s also wonderful to hear someone’s native accent shining through.
Rowena Wise has been using music as therapy after some difficult years of big life changes and Bad Things Feel Good* is a poetic and often painful autobiography that has left us with an amazing set of songs on an album that fixes her honesty and empathy in amber.
Rowena Wise: Bandcamp | Website | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | | Tidal | YouTube
UK Tour dates in 2027:
Thu 4 March – London – Moth Club
Fri 5 Mar – Bristol – The Louisiana
Sat 6 Mar – Birmingham – The Sunflower
Sun 7 Mar – TBA – Venue TBA
Tue 9 Mar – Newcastle – Cluny2
Wed 10 Mar – Glasgow – The Glad Café
Thu 11 Mar – Leeds – Headrow House
Fri 12 Mar – Norwich – Voodoo Daddy’s
Sat 13 Mar – Brighton – Green Door Store
Sun 14 Mar – Manchester – The Abbey
Coming next week: we have Rowena Wise’s track by track breakdown of this outstanding album.
Review by Paul F Cook
Keep up to date with all new content on Joyzine via our
Facebook | Bluesky | Instagram | Threads | Mailing List