We are devoted Wishy fans—and rightfully so. One of our favourite Indiana band has had a momentous 2-year run: releasing two EPs in 2023, “Mana” and “Paradise“, and following it up last year with their debut album “Triple Seven”, a record that found spots on both our best albums and best debut albums lists for 2024. On top of that, the band was featured as part of our Best of What’s New last August. All of this is to say: if you’re new around here, go give Wishy a listen. They’ve already shared their third EP, “Planet Popstar“—a buoyant fever dream of indie-pop nostalgia plucked straight out of the aughts. The guitars on “Over and Over” are an instant earworm, anchored throughout the track by Kevin Krauter and Nina Pitchkites’ near weightless vocals.
Meanwhile, the snare heavy rhythms and steady, flowing groove brings to mind (or my mind, at least) the effortless cool of early Yo La Tengo. Since “Mana”, Wishy have matured at an amazing rate. They’re still pulling on the same threads of longing and self-reflection and gazing down at the same guitar pedals, but the music is different—arriving both more refined and intentional in every foggy lyric and fuzzy riff.
“Planet Popstar” Though these six songs are technically B-sides that didn’t make Wishy’s debut LP “Triple Seven”, a couple more and they’d have a compelling full-length follow-up in their hands. Yet this is a band that excels at and experiments with the EP format, as evidenced by 2023’s “Paradise“, which made our list that year and was compiled with the new one as “Paradise on Planet Popstar” on sky blue vinyl. As the title suggests, Wishy are on top of the world here – or maybe somewhere on the outskirts of it. Spellbound and starry-eyed, the record approaches euphoria with the shakiness of living in the real world, soaring and shimmering but willing to undercut its own sweetness. It’s elevated, most of all, by Nina Pitchkites and Kevin Krauter’s dynamic interplay, which often frames the songs in conversation with each other. “Book a flight to the sun/ ‘Cause I’d rather be burned alive/ If I thought it would catch your eye,” Krauter sings on the title track, while Pitchkites laments, on the bubbly ‘Chaser’, “I’m just another one of your trips around the sun.” For the listener, at least, the ride’s worthwhile.
released April 25th, 2025
The Fat Angel Sings 