Wednesday - Bleeds

Rock – Released September 19, 2025 – 12 songs, 37 mins

LUNDI

It took nearly 9 months and a seemingly endless amount of relatively disappointing records from acclaimed TSR artists, but 2025 at last has sprung an album of the year contender from the batch of anticipated follow-up records we’ve taken on here this year at your favourite music blog. Southern darlings Wednesday, deliver Bleeds, in an effort to best the critically acclaimed Rat Saw God, my personal AOTY for 2023. Rather than choose a favourite child, let’s just go ahead and celebrate the greatness of this modern day rock outfit. 

On Bleeds, Wednesday continue to blaze their own separate path by delivering a fresh punch to an industry that desperately lacks a unique output that entertains the masses in addition to scratching the itch of the chronically online indie head. With a second rock masterpiece now on shelves the band aren’t just a key cog in the rock revival but the straw that stirs the drink, due to a wicked combination of cynical lyrical storytelling and an injection of southern Americana musical stylings to traditional rock structures. 

For the songwriting, band creator Karly Hartzman is a lyrical savant. She tells a story unlike any other artist, a quality that took some time to click with Rat Saw God, but immediately hits as apparent on Bleeds. That isn’t to say Hartzman is doing something different but more so familiarity with the band helps dissection of her twisted tales of younger years. Stories dripping in small town vibes, a situation I know all too well. Filled with tragic deaths, the necessity to get out, and quips on mainstay townies young and old, Hartzman’s songs are driven by endless nostalgia peppered quips layered one after the other. 

The likes of bars like Wound Up Here’s “you saw a pitbull puppy pissing off the balcony” or Gary II’s “I always did wonder how your teeth stayed so nice when the only thing you drink is Pepsi” seem so innocent and charming on their own, but Hartzman has this distinctive ability to take a carousel of memories that reads of conjecture amongst old friends and turn them into insightful stories on small town life and the violent outcomes that are common place from acceptance of the hand you’re dealt. It’s rare to get out and channeling from my own experiences it’s inherently expected you stay. To so eloquently deliver song after song that peaks behind that curtain is a master class performance. 

Hartzman certainly isn’t alone in this venture’s success, and while she wields an axe herself, she benefits greatly by having another musical prodigy in MJ Lenderman on lead guitar and supporting vocals. Wednesday’s sprawling rendition of southern Americana is formed with traditional bass guitar and drums setting the signature timing with a prominent lap steel fortifying the bands sonics. The total collective output is a band that continues to find perfection in simplified bluesy riffs and laid back slacker arrangements and there’s variety and elegance in that simplicity as the band play off one another like a veterans of their craft. The days of a four piece rock band making waves seem all but gone, but it certainly doesn’t mean rock is dead, if anything far from it. Wednesday just teach us that you have to bring something different to the table to stand out amongst the crowd. Their ability to sprawl across rock sub-genres with ease and tie elements of grunge, shoegaze, and commercial rock to their southern charm is uncanny. I’m not sure Wednesday ever envisioned their makeup would see them standing atop the proverbial pile, but here they are and there’s sure no sign of stopping now. 

Bleeds marks back to back incredible indie Americana records for Wednesday and cements Karly Hartzman as one of music’s best lyricists. The North Carolina rockers may stray too far off the beaten path to garner mainstream notoriety just yet but they are most certainly the pinnacle indie darling and well on their way to stardom. 

Overall Rating: 8.8/10

Favourite Song: Townies

ROZ

With an output that would make anyone blush (6 albums in 8 years), the band Wednesday returns to make a follow-up statement after their acclaimed 2023 effort Rat Saw God. In the time between the two albums, much has changed. They saw the departure of their bass guitarist Margo Shutlz, who left ahead of Rat Saw God’s world tour. Not only that, but the power couple comprised of Karly Hartzman and MJ Lenderman broke apart. When news of this hit the indie rock headlines my first thought was that the band may very well be doomed and eventually cease to exist. Thankfully, this was not the case – and while Lenderman has revoked his touring duties, he still very much was part of the band in a songwriting and studio recording capacity. While the majority of songs on the new album were written before the duo split, it does leave one wondering whether it will effect the end result. This Thursday, we take a look at the band Wednesday and their sixth studio album Bleeds.

The sonic improvements on this record are quite noticeable. Where on Rat Saw God the group, not yet signed to a label, scratched and clawed to get what limited studio time they could afford, these behind-the-curtain hindrances felt non-existent now that they’ve enjoyed the fruits of their labour and consequential breakout success. The album begins with the explosive Reality TV Argument Bleeds, where distorted guitars compete for dominance over hard-hitting drums and chugging melodies. Lead single Elderberry Wine showcases a much more laid-back, Americana styling, fully fitted with lap steel guitar arrangements and Lenderman-backed harmonies to fill out the range nicely. The instrumental layers get even more stripped back on The Way Love Goes, a sweet and sincere composition exclusively carried by the talented frontwoman. My favourite of the lot, Bitter Everyday, combines both the sourness and the sweetness of Bleeds – a perfect balance of elements that I feel really sums up the tone of this album the best.

Hartzman’s characteristic vocal flickers and inflections pitch her words up and down, denoting whatever emotion lies beneath each one as she paints vivid imagery across the record. Herein lies the core strength of Wednesday: Hartzman’s unmatched skill when it comes to teleporting the listener directly into her world. Through immaculate songwriting, you are able to experience the stories in her life through her own eyes and absorb every small facet of her upbringing; from leaf blower bonfires all the way to her watching Human Centipede while stoned to the bone. This innate ability was well apparent in the band’s last outing, and this time around it is no different – if not improved upon, surprisingly. You’d think that the ink in her pen would run dry at this point in her career, but this is very much not the case as Bleeds not only picks up where she left off, but also adds the additional dynamic of what I can only describe as the slow, gnawing attrition that comes when a relationship ends. The biggest and most comforting takeaway is the seemingly lack of ill will between her and Lenderman, as they both have mentioned in passing across numerous interviews. The quality of their collaboration on this album is further testament to this, which itself feels anything but forced or jarring.

Somehow, Wednesday has defied all odds by releasing an album that feels even more grounded in reality than their last. Bleeds is a powerful example of hard work – and hard living – eventually paying itself off.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

Favourite Song: Bitter Everyday

REID

Two evenings ago, I did something I very rarely do during my TSR album review prep. I listened to the full album with someone else. The album? The new release from Wednesday, Bleeds.The companion? My girlfriend. Now this wasn’t some predetermined exercise I set up for any particular reason. We were simply in the kitchen preparing vegetables for a delicious chicken pot pie soup she makes and she requested I throw on some tunes. It turned out to be an interesting experience and I came away with a heightened appreciation of the band and this record.

Any time you create a playlist or put on music for someone else’s consumption, you do so hoping they’re going to enjoy it. While the pressure of this instance was significantly less than say, a wedding playlist, I still wanted the next half hour of chopping potatoes, carrots, garlic and other fixings to be entertaining. I already knew she liked the first single, Elderberry Wine, as it had been in rotation since coming out a few months ago and it’s great. It’s the second album in a row they’ve led with a country single after Rat Saw God’s Chosen to Deserve. This created a handful of rhetorical thoughts in my head:

Why lead with pure country when it’s not your principal sound? Is it viewed as an accessible single for increased overall exposure? Did the band or label choose the single? How many country die-hards listened to Bleeds after Elderberry Wine and what was the reaction?

The country inclusion here is much more apparent than its predecessor. It felt a little forced on Rat Saw God being heavy on a singular track. On Bleeds, its impact simmers effectively throughout the runtime with the excellent Townies, the toe-tapping Phish Pepsi and the closer Gary’s II. Thankfully Karly and the crew didn’t lose their grungy, alt-rock sound that grabbed my attention two years ago. Reality TV Argument Bleeds, Candy Breath and Bitter Everyday scratch the itch with some memorable guitar arrangements. Then you have the completely stripped down Carolina Murder Suicide where Karly channels her inner Phoebe Bridgers on a heartbreaking song. And I can’t gloss over the raucous Wasp, a minute-and-a-half punk rock interlude that slaps you right in the face.

You may be asking yourself ‘what the hell does this have to do with his soup?’.

Promoting this album to someone else, someone who was mostly unfamiliar with Wednesday prior to, made me listen to it a little differently and appreciate the nuances a little more. Sonically this record offers so much variety. I may say that often in my reviews because it’s a quality from the best of the best. But Wednesday dare to mix and match genres you’d never see together and Bleeds is their best mix yet.

One thing that is unlikely to become apparent over a singular listen while cooking supper is Karly’s premiere songwriting. This young woman is quickly building a catalog of brilliance, picking up where she left off on Rat Saw God. A song like Townies feels tongue in cheek with her quirky delivery but explores a much deeper issue of small town life below the surface. As a Newfoundlander, it rings true. The song would no doubt have the entire province talking if Wednesday were more mainstream (if you know, you know). This is just a single example on a record full of great writing. There’s so much crap out there today, this type of cream rises to the top.

On Bleeds, Karly Hartzman continues to juxtapose devastation and humour in her tales of small town America. Before it’s all said and done, ‘Wednesday’ may become synonymous as a genre. Country, grunge, heavy alternative, shoegaze and stripped down indie rock baked together in a thirty-seven minute triumph.

Overall Rating: 8.3/10

Favourite Song: Elderberry Wine