“Wish On The Bone’ is Why Bonnie’s sophomore LP and debut for Fire Talk. It’s untethered from any landscape or genre, propelled by this freedom and resulting in Why Bonnie’s most catchy, hopeful body of work to-date. Ranging from twangy country infused rock jams to more intimate and lo-fi arrangements, ‘Wish on the Bone’ is wide-eyed and waiting. It’s a coming of age film in which the protagonist rejects the forces that have tried, and failed, to shape her into something other than herself. It leaves you with a hard-fought sense of hope, which is among songwriter Blair Howerton’s greatest gifts.
The best Why Bonnie song yet, “Rhyme or Reason” has a tonal weight that rests on that of Blair Howerton’s long, complicated relationship with spirituality, something she explored on “90 “in November“, too (including the story of Genesis 19 on “Lot’s Wife”; “Looked like we had just won, but you’ll turn all to salt if you ever look back”).
“The disappearing warmth of love, like Halley’s Comet, I’ve only heard of it,” she sings. “I’ve never seen its streak, but I have heard it comes fast and you’ll miss it if you blink.” Those lines, like many in the Why Bonnie catalog, were inspired through Howerton’s grief of losing her brother Bristol (whom the band’s first EP was dedicated to in 2018) to drug addiction in 26. “I don’t want to harden through grief; I want to stay curious and stay hopeful,” Howerton said earlier this year. “All of these things that I love, I’m eventually going to lose one day.
There’s no reason not to love them. It’s all the more reason to love them, because it’s a really powerful thing to love someone who’s gone and to piece the world back together yourself.” With that context, the “Just tell me when and I’ll be waitin’” refrain in “Rhyme or Reason” is about 10 pounds heavier.
From Why Bonnie’s sophomore album ‘Wish On The Bone’ out August 30th on Fire Talk.
The Fat Angel Sings 