#336 (of 365) "Shadow" Wild Nothing

"Paradise" was probably the first song I heard from Wild Nothing, off their second full-length Nocturne, in 2012. And I became an instant fan, but not diehard enough, apparently, to do a deep-dive into their back catalog at all. Nocturne featured a stream of songs in the "Beach Music" vibe that I was just discovering, which included emerging bands like Day Wave and Real Estate and Beach Fossils, a genre I'm not sure has ever been properly labeled but has dominated my musical interest for a decade now, in retrospect. But for Wild Nothing, follow up Empty Estate in 2013 was a short album of 7 songs that included the brilliant "Ride" but little else, and the next full-lengths Life of Pause (2016) and Indigo (2018) signaled a shift in the style of music that didn't appeal to me. I remember seeing them in concert in Philly, I think in support of Indigo, and being so indifferent to the music that I spent much of the show chatting with my friend--something I abhor when others do it, but I guess I was the rude one that night.

​Fast forward to COVID, when concerts and new music kind of disappeared, and I guess I was looking through back catalogs and older tracks, discovering great forgotten bands that emerged in the same early-2010s as Wild Nothing like Craft Spells and Pity Sex, and I stumbled upon "Your Rabbit Feet" which appeared on their  2010 EP Golden Haze. I spent the summer listening nonstop to Golden Haze and their first full-length, Gemini (also 2010), two albums which combine for four songs on this countdown, all in the upper half. "Shadow" is the only song from 2012's Nocturne to make the list, making it 5 overall for Wild Nothing. A couple years ago, they played at LPR for the 10th anniversary of Nocturne and played the entire amazing album. But even better, when they finished, they pulled out a few of their early tracks, including "Your Rabbit Feet" and "Summer Holiday," two of my favorite (new-to-me) songs of the past five years. They may never return to writing that style of music but man, the Wild Nothing of 2010 to 2012 was one of the great bands of all time.

"Shadow" - Wild Nothing // Nocturne (2012)