Daywhistle – Ugly Calendars (New Album Review)

Hey guys, I’m here today to talk about a new release that’s really been hitting me hard lately. It’s been knocking around in my head for hours every day, and to be honest it’s starting to hurt, so I’m going to have to write about it here.

Album cover design by Ezra Bloomberg

Released on February 28th, Ugly Calendars is the fourth LP from Knoxville electronica trio Daywhistle. It’s the followup to their underappreciated 2020 album Sweethearts, and their first release since former lead vocalist Chad Belcher tragically died in a motorcycle accident while on tour. He was replaced by Riley Johnson (formerly of Brake Lines), whose soft voice contrasts sharply with the highly emotive style of her predecessor. It's a beautiful and unique album, and one that deserves so much more attention.

If Ugly Calendars is informed by the grief of Belcher’s death, it’s buried beneath the surface. For the most part, it’s an oddly comforting, honey-warm listen; only when you listen closely to the lyrics does the heartache at its core become noticeable. In a song like “Former”, for example, the alt-country instrumentation feels sunshiny and sweet, but there’s something missing. The chord progressions swing upwards and work their way towards something, but never quite make it there. It’s the sound of a person struggling towards happiness, but never quite making it. Lyrics like, “I saw four messages written on your forehead, but I thought that they were for somebody else/ I saw four spirits hanging around your doorway, but you always thought you were in hell” point to the uncertainty of a relationship cut short– of feelings remembered but never really resolved.

This record also sees the band finding a new take on their Tennessee roots. For the first time, country and folk influences are creeping into their sound, albeit within the context of their distinctive, shoegaze-y electronica. If you're familiar with Daywhistle’s previous work, you’ll notice that Ugly Calendars sounds much less reliant on samples. But most of these songs are still built around them; they are just muted and hidden from the surface. On “Black Out, Daisy”, the group weaves a mostly organic, folksy country track around a half-timed sample of cool jazz classic “Night Lights” by the Gary Mulligan sextet. The result is bizarre and gorgeous; Daywhistle’s instruments struggle to match perfectly with the complex jazz chord progressions, but out of that contrast comes a sense of confusion and perseverance that defines the record as a whole. This is an album about a band struggling through hard times, but finding real, profound joy in the wake of grief. Furthermore, there’s a sense of anxiety that comes from Johnson; her voice floats beautifully over the ever-shifting instrumentation, but you get the sense that she’s always uncertain what to do next. 

Altogether, Ugly Calendars is a haunting, beautiful, and surprisingly positive album. I really do love it, and I hope that you can find the time to check it out.