Wunderhorse ‘Midas’ review: Rising indie stars have their golden moment
Wunderhorse's second album heralds the arrival of a band that could become generational.
Jacob Slater emerged as Wunderhorse in 2021 from the ashes of former project Dead Pretties, who burned out as quickly as they appeared in the London post-punk scene of the late 2010s. Debut album Cub saw him mine his past and his new life as a Cornwall-based surfer, dropping the post-punk façade and instead gaining comparisons to Elliott Smith, Neil Young and Thom Yorke.
READ MORE: How Wunderhorse got it together for their second album
Its follow-up, Midas, introduces Wunderhorse as a full four-piece band who bonded across an extensive tour behind Cub that made them one of the tightest acts around. Slater considers it Wunderhorse’s debut album, at least spiritually, and this makes perfect sense: this stunning record bursts straight out of the gates as a true (re-)introduction.
Recorded live at the legendary Pachyderm Studio in Minnesota (birthplace of Nirvana’s In Utero), Midas is full of rough edges, imperfections and scything, untampered energy. The record has the feel of a band with now-telepathic energy rolling straight off the tour bus and being captured at their most unfiltered. ‘Rain’ and ‘July’ have the intoxicating sound of runaway trains, while ‘Emily’ builds to a raucous conclusion.
Spotlighting the energy and rawness of Midas isn’t a criticism of the songwriting, though. On ‘Superman’, Slater sings defiantly of disappointing those close to him, while the powerful ‘Cathedrals’ deserves to be a festival anthem.
If Dead Pretties saw Slater dial up the intensity one too many notches and Cub saw him working himself out slowly, Midas is the arrival of a band that could become generational.