3 out of 5

Label: VHF Records

Produced by: Margaret Wienk

A pretty set of medieval-tinged folk that… I just wish was a little bit more of something.

Margie Wienk (and friends) has carved out an interesting space in the indie folk scene since the early 00s, dribbling in noise and some traditional rock elements to add grit and unpredictability to Fern Knight’s paced strumming and clean singing. On this third, self-titled album, that makes for a promising setup: Wienk pokes at vague / obscure imagery but veers from going either too indulgent or too “weird” with it, mapped to songwriting that walks a fine line between Renn fair pleasantries and minimalistic, Tiny Vipers-like whispers, with bandmates Jim Ayre and James Wolf of From Quagmire bringing in an outre element that makes this feel very at home on VHF (alongside frequent VHF-er Jesse Sparhawk on harp and bass).

But this combo, while promising, doesn’t push far enough towards a really identifiable sound, except in how it’s balanced between some of the aforementioned states. The addition of occasional distortion and noise is cool; it’s often just inserted as sort of a punch up at the end of a song, though – it’s not a necessary part of the overall sound, except on opener Bemused, which is titled effectively: this maintains the kind of offhand sound of the project, but incorporates all of the various elements – noise, melody – throughout. I think diving deeper into this throughout would be very compelling, but instead, the album is just kind of harmlessly pleasant.

That’s a criticism, though from a different perspective, the “balance” I’ve kind of picked on is what makes this an easy listen: I kept suspecting I’d be cringing at something that would tip over into Hobbit-y dances, or that Wienk would push too hard on some overly poetic prose, or that we’d get some token rocker in the middle of the album, but… no, Fern Knight sticks to their path, steady, quite exactly on that fine line. Even if it’s an unflashy skill, it’s still a skill.