Silverware’s sophomore LP One True Light is out today on Ghost Mountain records. Following a string EPs and 2021’s LP No Plans, One True Light is Wagoner’s most ambitious effort, both sonically and lyrically – a result of their two year, painstakingly detailed approach to every step of the album-making process and intimate collaboration with producer Omar Akrouche between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Wagoner came up in Lexington, Kentucky’s weird and interwoven d.i.y. circles, playing gigs as Silverware as early as 2010. The project started truly finding its shape with a 2014 move to the Bay Area. In the course of getting established in her new zone, Wagoner immersed herself in booking and promoting shows, developing her practice of production and studio playing, working as both a band leader and a supportive player, investing in coalition-building, and generally using Silverware as a vessel to connect with her new community.

What She Says: “The song started in my practice space writing a repetitive drum beat over which I began chanting: “No! Expec! Ta! Tions!” Since No Expectations is a hopes-raised-and-dashed narrative, I wanted the instrumentation to be upbeat and bubbly in contrast. For that, we added a bouncy rubber bridge guitar, punchy bass line, and clean grand piano. For the vocals, we were inspired by the dynamic performances of Judee Sill, as well as Mitski’s intimate, dry delivery- so we used a vintage TV-presenter microphone to achieve a dramatic-but-confessional sound, for an overall 80s-art-pop-meets-90s-adult-contemporary production.”
The clear-headed, piano-led  No Expectations, the first single from the album, offsets its hopes-raised-and-dashed narrative with a light, cherry instrumentation that collages ‘80s pop with the faintest hints of adult-contemporary radio hits of the Winwood and Hornsby variety, only to jostle the delicate balance with unexpected moments of choppy technical riffing and left-field group vocal shouting. The track features added vocal performances from a cohort of Bay Area artists including Taylor Giffin (Healing Potpourri, Magic Fig), Tom Smith (Smoking Ziggurats, Eternal Drag), Asha Wells (Asha Wells, Pillow Prince), Sarah Simon (Magic Magic Roses, July), and Simi Sohota (Healing Potpourri).

New Bright Room tunes into controlled ambience, its layers of vocals floating weightlessly in an atmosphere that somehow simultaneously holds tension and acceptance.

Each of the ten songs that make up One True Light take their own distinctive path. Wagoner’s visionist production is the connective tissue that makes her experiments with cellophane-wrapped synth pop work alongside subtly jazz-tinged arrangements or make sense interspersed with Friday night shout-along anthems. The stylistic streams change often and drastically, but Wagoner remains at home and locked in airtight focus on whatever sound she approaches. Never heavy-handed or pushy, One True Light moves through its multi-hued chapters with grace and even slight deflection, careful not to announce any of its changes too blatantly. Ultimately, this soft touch makes the songs all the more powerful, as Wagoner gently but masterfully weaves all of her complex feelings, quiet revelations, critically inspected channels of thought, and bounds of playful musical exploration into an album knowingly unlike anything else in its milieu. Just how fearlessly different One True Light is becomes vividly apparent the more time that’s spent with it. As the album plays on, Wagoner seamlessly blurs art pop magnanimity with hook-based bangers that can be traditional or abstract. One moment she’s walking by the house someone she used to know lived in, wistful and a little sad in the familiar confines of straightforward indie rock melancholy, the next she’s strumming a bright acoustic guitar in full Americana regalia, then seconds later tweaking the filters on a vintage synth to add bite to a song that’s as experimental as it is confessional. (Fred Thomas).

One True Light is out now via Ghost Mountain Records. Look HERE for more Information on Silverware.