The Women of the Night is an edgy, New York rock band that cleverly mixes punk, garage, blues, psych, dream pop, and alt. rock. It’s hard to put a finger on exactly what genre WOTN should fall under, and that’s part of their appeal. They have their own sound.
WOTN’s new debut LP, the 13-track, Pastel Colors, opens with the gritty retro track, “I Am Well And Missing You,” sporting a buzzsaw, chugging guitar, booming bass, furious drumming, and crashing cymbals. This track might remind some of 70’s Detriot punk rock bands like The Stooges.
The song, according to vocalist and guitarist Jordan D’Arsie, is “a take on voyeurism…watching someone from across the street…or from inside one’s head constructing a story.”
The second track, and title track of the album, slows things down with its lazy, bluesy psychedelic-like brew, while the pace picks up nicely on the post-Velvet Underground-like track, “White Lighter.”
But it’s the bluesy groove and melodic gravity of “Moscow Mansions” that really perks up the listener’s ears with impressive vocal work from D’Arisie together with his shifting guitar signatures accompanied by wavy synths (one of the few times synths are used on the album), together with bumbling bass lines from Grey Watson and the sweet beats of percussionist Kyubae Lee.
The track is one of the definite hands-down highlight songs on the album thanks to its trippy 60s pop vibe.
The woozy, psych-tinged “Leather Glove” is another one of the tracks on the album that struts and sways along on heavy bass runs and lumbering percussions. At the song’s midpoint, it picks up suddenly in rhythm with the snarly vocals of D’Arisie, only to slow down again through to the ending.
Among the other highlight tracks is the bad boy, “Be Careful What You Wish For,” which has plenty of attitude and yet is also one of the more melodic pop moments on the album that break away from the predominantly punky post-Velvet-Underground influenced style. It also contains the memorable refrain, “I’ve got you on speed dial,” and one of the few choruses on the album as well.
Following that number is the retro, bluesy, “I Couldn’t Fool Them,” donning a catchy swagger and a lazy rhythm that is matched by an intriguing, if not rarely-heard, tinny sound to the lead guitar.
Then there is one of the best tracks on the album, “Quiet Nights.” This is a different kind of ‘dream-pop’ song (that is hard to pigeon-hole) awash in lazy, hushed guitars and heavy bass lines with light cymbals to create a very laid back vibe.
And just in time along comes the surprise, “Used Car Salesman,” track No. 11 on the album. It’s an electrifying song that sounds so much like the Detriot rock of the 1970s. And yet there is also a bit of familiarity with the style and personality of Mac DeMarco.
This is further evidenced by the slow-mo lo-fi garage rocker, “Bad Tee Vee,” that promises via the repetitious line to “give you fucking nightmares.” It didn’t, so that’s good.
The album closes with the appropriately melodic and psych rock-oriented, “Like People Whilst,” which is definitely one of the more dream-pop tracks on the album and reminds us a bit of M83. The bubbly burn of the guitar feedback flickers and fades away for the final seconds of Pastel Colors.
As albums go, this is a fine debut. Perhaps a few of the tracks could have been left off to make it a bit shorter and even stronger, but the entire trip is worth the time.
Interestingly, three of the most solid tracks on the LP derive from their 2016 debut EP: “Quiet Nights”; “I Couldn’t Fool Them” and “I Am Well And Missing You.” The band says the LP is broken into two sides, essentially, A as morning through to afternoon and side B as afternoon through the night.
As some of the more upbeat, hooky songs demonstrate, the band is also accomplished at producing songs that are more melodic and rhythmic than the slower and more sluggish tracks.
The band has opened for Los Santoros, Revel in Dimes, Liza Colby Sound, Birds, and The Slashes. Their main influences, according to D’Arisie, are The Velvet Underground and Rowland S Howard.
Listen to the full album on Bandcamp.
Sidebar: Defining Dream Pop
As evident from our review of Pastel Colors, and past support, we’ve been fans of Women of the Night since the get-go.
That’s one of the reasons we’d like to recommend, with all respect, that they change their own classification of their music as dream pop.
WOTN is simply not a dream-pop band.
Rather, they are a sure-fire mixed-genre rock outfit that incorporates many genres and sub-genres, which is what makes classifying them all of the more difficult. That is also the case with many, many indie and alt. rock DIY/small label bands.
WOTN’s signature sound and style rely heavily on a mixture of slow-burning, laid-back lo-fi garage rock with servings of punk, blues, psych, pop all swirled together, marked by strong veins of rock and roll swagger and street-level stride.
The classification of dream pop is off-centered and not reflective of the band’s brand. While there are definitely some dream-pop elements and moments on the album, most music folks think of dream-pop as bands like Beach House, My Bloody Valentine, DIIV, Mac Demarco, The Flaming Lips, among others.
According to the AllMusic Guide, dream pop “relies on sonic textures as much as melody…breathy vocals and processed, echo-laden guitars and synthesizers.”
That’s not what WOTN is doing. Instead, they have essentially their own mixed-genre sound. That’s the best ‘in a nutshell’ way to describe it.
While WOTN’s sound sometimes and sort of “encompasses the post-Velvet Underground guitar rock of Galaxie 500,” as the AllMusic Guide references, they do not produce, as their signature sound, “the loud, shimmering feedback of My Bloody Valentine” and a “reliance on sonic textures” in terms of “both instruments and vocals.”
You will not find expansive, shimmering and layered guitars, soaring and sheeny synths, indiscernible lyrics, nor languid soundscapes – all of which are long-standing characteristics of dream-pop, which also has overlap with shoegaze.
Furthermore, with some minor exceptions, the band’s sound is not synthy or atmospheric – as in ascending, soaring and “floating ‘up there'” – nor is it necessarily textured or ethereal.
Rather, WOTN’s sound much closer to the street, even right on the street; their songs are bluesy, gritty, unrefined, loose, raw and even somewhat wild, maybe even downright primal in some spots.
They are, more specifically, a New York/Detriot 70s punk retro blues-rock trio. Pinning the band’s sound down to one genre – especially dream-pop – would be precarious and insufficient. People like that they can’t be pinned down. That’s part of what indie is all about.