Best of 2024: Wild Pink - Dulling the Horns
by Easton Parks
“Nothing lasts forever.” This sentiment, sung by John Ross, is splashed across Wild Pink’s Dulling the Horns in droves. Whether in more direct lyrical references – such as the Washington Bullets becoming the Wizards – or in letting go of something you love, you can’t escape the feeling that everything ends. Although indeed nothing lasts forever, John Ross has found the recipe to lessen that pain; saying it aloud.
Dulling the Horns expands on the gentler folk-rock of past Wild Pink albums with the addition of heavier shoegaze-esque guitars, present in tracks such as “Bonnie One.” In some ways, it feels like an understanding and taming down of the soul-crushing guitars from “Sucking On The Birdshot” off their last album ILYSM. “Sucking On The Birdshot” was an outlier on an album with a majority of tender moments. That’s not to say Dulling the Horns isn’t tender because of its comparatively harsher sound, but rather, it’s a much more cohesive work, with less variation in sound throughout.
The first track “The Fences of Stonehenge” opens with a wonderfully wide-open guitar sound and driving percussion. Upbeat and catchy, the song has a quirky, fun synth that fits well within the song while guitars stimulate every side of your brain, and as soon as it starts, it ends. “Eating the Egg Whole” shows off Ross’s sports brain with tickles of nostalgia, referencing The Washington Bullets and Montreal Expos almost as examples to the thesis of “Nothing lasts forever.” Between references, Ross leans into profound statements that encapsulate much of the album's beauty with lines such as, “Sometimes a dream ain’t meant to be lived in / It’s meant to be forgotten.”
“Cloud Or Mountain” starts with odd-sounding chords, but sweeps right into a large distorted power-pop-like intro. Similar to some other songs on the album, it seems to have two songs in one. The second half of the song slows down but keeps the energy up with a massive build into an electric outro. “Disintegrate” adds to the loud wide-open sound but adds sprinkles of tranquility with the addition of the beautiful tones of a horn. The slower tracks, like “Disintegrate” and the title track, live in a feel-good pocket of warmth that makes every next moment a priority.
With such a consistent sound, additions like the piano across “Sprinter Brain” are like little treats amidst an already wonderful meal. As one of the singles for the album, this track is a perfect encapsulation of the project. Poetic lyrics ask broad questions but yet still feel content, as John sings, “There’s just so many things / Can’t Explain.” Another one of these treats is the glockenspiel on “Catholic Dracula” which sounds particularly incredible when it pairs with the vocal melody at the end.
“Bonnie One” is the shortest song on the album, but it makes the most of its run time. Beginning and ending with driving guitars and drums, the entire song feels like a build-up to the words, “I love you so / My Darling One” and spills out into a Celtic folk-like outro. The album then ends with “Rung Cold” a near six-minute, three-part-like song that fittingly ends with a large outro after hearing, “If you can’t get along with it / You gotta just get on with it.”
Dulling the Horns doesn’t overstay its welcome, it’s satisfying front-to-back. Cohesive in tone and sound, this is John Ross’s best work as Wild Pink.