While catching Wye Oak’s super sized show at The Sinclair in Cambridge, Jenn and Andy graciously signed a few copies of some of their recent albums to make available for their fans. Album is signed on the LP cover. Always a delight to see them – thanks for all the great shows over the years!

The word tween implies a certain, very specific kind of awkwardness, and those implications are rarely positive. But think about it like this: Something tween is in the process of becoming something else, and theres a very specific kind of beauty in that becoming. Theres something rewarding in recognizing and celebrating itin meeting it halfway.

Jenn Wasner and Andy Stackthe bands two halvesdescribed these songs as not emblematic of a step forward, but a step sideways in time. In other words, they just didnt make sense for album number fivewhich will happen at some point in the future. But just because they didnt belong there doesnt mean they dont belong anywhere. To wedge them onto Shriek wouldve been dishonest; to orphan them wouldve been somewhere on the line between criminal and just plain silly.

Tween is full of gorgeous Wye Oak songs whose only crime was timing and context, made by two people at the height of their game. One minute Jenn and Andy are embracing their floatiest Cocteau Twins instinct (If You Should See), the next theyre back in Civilian territory a bit (No Dreaming), and later theyre slinky and electronic and gorgeously 80s (On Luxury).

The common thread: These are no castaways or cutouts. In fact, pound for pound, Tween might actually be more directly accessible than Shriek. It should join the pantheon of amazing not-albums of history whose names try to downplay how good they actually are, like R.E.M.s Dead Letter Office, The Whos Odds and Sods, maybe even Dinosaur Jr.s Whatevers Cool With Me.