Photo by Marisa Chafetz

“Seven months I’ve been knocked down, can’t sleep / I’ve been knocked well off my feet, but please tell me,” Ava Trilling enters the scene on “7 Months”. You’d think she be exhausted. It’s been seven years on one of two highlights from Forth Wanderer’s first new offerings since their 2018 self-titled sophomore effort, Sub Pop debut, and then-swan song. To be clear, Forth Wanderers aren’t back, but also, they very much sound like they are more than ever. They may have recorded their first new new album together since dissolving the band, but there’s no promises there’s a future beyond this point. Maybe that’s for the better because the lack of pressure that comes with being a buzzy indie rock band being lifted off the shoulders of frontwoman Ava Trilling and company is telling, with the listen loosely flitting through a lightness of asymmetrical guitar-pop pattern work that glimmers and stammers around a jazz-frenetic rhythm on full tilt. What’s written on the Montclair-bred band’s faces is a fully refreshed reaction. “7 Months” catches up to today in quick order, with no visible wrinkle lines in sight.

Directed by: Elisabeth Yu Schifrin and Noah Yu Schifrin

Forth Wanderers’ The Longer This Goes On will be released July 18th on Sub Pop.