With his fifth full-length album, Carousel, Ohio’s premier purveyor of indie twang, Mark Scott (aka villagerrr), has delivered a gorgeous collection of Midwestern slowcore that is cozy enough to soothe even the most extreme cases of avian-induced rage. I spent my first listen deeply entrenched in my garden, desperately trying to repair the wreckage left behind by local birds who apparently mistook my freshly planted beds for a five-star dust-bath resort. As I dug out tiny, fragile seedlings that had been casually buried alive by the neighborhood birds, the album’s warm, rolling melodies served as the perfect emotional anchor. Thanks to Scott’s calming, sweeping soundscapes, my homicidal urges toward the wildlife completely dissolved, and I instead found the peace of mind to implement a rational defense strategy: setting up a decoy bird bath and fully enclosing the perimeter with defensive netting. It turns out all I needed was 45 minutes of top-tier indie rock to turn a horticultural disaster into a pretty fun afternoon.
Released via Winspear, the record brilliantly expands villagerrr’s intimate home-recorded roots into a lush, collaborative ecosystem that feels both grounded and cinematic. ‘Carousel’ heavily draws its sonic palette from the golden eras of introspective indie rock and alt-country, wearing its influences proudly like a well-worn flannel shirt. You can instantly hear the DNA of classic 90s slowcore greats like Duster blending seamlessly with the modern, raucous “indie twang” of contemporaries like Big Thief and MJ Lenderman. By folding in a rotating cast of friends for additional vocals, banjos, and weeping pedal steels, Scott elevates his signature songwriting into something beautifully expansive, making for some excellent tuneage for me over-analyzing my life while staring at a patch of dirt.
While the entire 10-track journey is incredibly cohesive, a few songs stood out for me and had me going back to them again and again. The soaring title track, “Carousel”, shoots straight for the skies, perfectly balancing an optimistic Midwestern warmth with addictive melodic hooks. For something with a bit more structural heft, the opening track “Full Nelson” serves up a brilliant, slow-burning groove that anchors the album’s emotional weight early on. Finally, “Locket” stands out as an absolute centerpiece, achingly honest and endlessly inspiring all at once. Whether you are actively fighting a losing war against the local wildlife or just looking for a comforting sonic blanket to wrap yourself in, Carousel is a really good modern indie folk record that left me smiling and mercifully kept those damn birds alive for another day.
Links of interest:
https://www.instagram.com/villagerrrrrrrr
https://villagerrr.bandcamp.com/album/carouse