Winsome doesn’t try to flaunt their mastery of their craft, it’s not in their nature. But on “Late To The Moon,” the Sacramento 3-piece’s third release in two years, their songwriting comes across as gasconade. What stands out to new and veteran fans alike is Winsome’s command of the cauldron of enchanted arrangements that betray the oft-feared shallowness of a 3-piece.
Helical braids of influence stratify the group’s sound. Elements of post-punk, bedroom pop, and slacker rock uphold a languid jazz spinal cord. Joe Oliveria’s guitar weaves a dirtbag’s lullaby, while Jess Carey’s bass plucks the listener out of their stoned reverie back into the song. Elegant crescendos are bejeweled by Joe Oliveria and Jess Carey’s cash-on-the-barrelhead harmonies, only to break the surface tension and pour into glistening releases. Aaron Inacio’s hypnotic mid-tempo drumming presses hot stones into the balls of your feet, while the bass and guitar insist on the medicine’s efficacy.
Dionysius in repose. A cartoonishly polished Chevy El Camino cutting like scissors on poster paper through Didion’s golden country. If there’s something in a name, Winsome’s whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
