Hi everyone, Rinkthony Dinktano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new feeble little horse album, bitknot.

bitknot is the third full-length LP from Pittsburgh band, feeble little horse, and it's their first to follow their 2023 record, Girl with Fish, an album that sort of put the band on the map with me and many other underground and indie music fans. This record took a lot of year-end favorites lists in 2023 by storm, which is impressive given that at the time they were a relatively unknown band. But then in the aftermath of this record, the buzz that feeble little horse built up with it— this is typically the time in any indie band's career where they would start striking while the iron is hot, heading right back directly into the follow-up record, doing everything they can to keep the engagement up.

But instead, these guys decided to hit the pause button on the whole thing, at least for a short while, which ultimately led to a 3-year gap between these two most recent records, which in the grander scheme of things is not that long.

But again, you have to consider the speed at which the music industry moves these days. Some bands drop multiple projects in that span of time. And it's especially surprising when you consider that this record and its predecessor, both are about 25 minutes in length— not massive records by any means.

Now, to add to this, bitknot was also dropped out of the blue with no real rollout or announcement or tease whatsoever, so kinda took everybody by surprise. And there wasn't really anything I had in mind going into this record outside of my enjoyment and continued appreciation for feeble little horse's last album, which definitely still stands out in my mind as one of the most interesting, dynamic, textured, and surprising indie releases of the 2020s, given its very unique and versatile blend of slacker rock and indie folk, and bedroom pop, and lo-fi, noise pop, and a host of other things kind of blending all together into this very cute and charming, adorable series of cacophonous little tunes that are mostly all incredibly sticky and catchy, despite how brief many of them are.

So, I dunno, for a surprise release out of the blue, my highest hope, honestly, is to get something that is at least just as good as Girl with Fish, and maybe some surprises and variations. And absolutely, there are some noticeable differences between bitknot and Girl with Fish off the bat. One, I'm picking up on more electronics being used in the mix on these songs. Way, way, way heavier guitars on some of the punchier and riffier cuts here too. Just some crushing guitar mixes for these tracks that for the most part sound very cute and very quiet.

Especially on the vocal end of things, which I'm noticing the singing is not as expressive or versatile, layered, and intimate this time around too, which was a bit disheartening, especially since the vocals for feeble little horse, historically, are pretty quiet and soft to begin with. If anything, more is what they kind of need, not less. Occasionally I'm noticing some tracks feature some fun little jittery edits or vocal sample-led melodies, but outside of that, there's not really a whole lot of growth or progress to speak of between this record and Girl with Fish, which I think I would be fine if we were talking about an album whose performances and writing were as good as its predecessor, but in my opinion we're not.

'Cause again, I do think we are seeing at least somewhat of a downgrade on the vocal front here, which is a shame because oftentimes it does seem like quite a bit of effort is going into the lyrics during moments where they are adorably biting and meta, like on "Dior": "I think I dodged a bullet not going to Wednesday's show / Kate saw you and she saw blank, but you came for me, I know / You are not David Berman, you are not Kurt Cobain."

Man, whoever the hell that lyric is about, is probably pissed off.

I'm also liking tracks where lyrically we get a bit of words of wisdom, I would say, especially in the case of "Rewind," which is very much about two people kind of going in different directions in life. "It's harder to rewind than to see at the same time / But if it doesn't add up, then I'll see you at the end of the line." "Cradle" features one of the most poetic moments on the entire record with, "I'll draw our baby's face / Give it your last name / but this house will never change / 'Cause God already came."

And I like the concept behind tracks like "Shopping" as well, which are very much about self-image, parasocial obsession, jealousy over those online who might sort of look good and present in a way that's more kind of pretty or more hip than you by comparison. But given some of the lofty topics, and I would say quality melodies too, that come off of these songs, I don't know if the brevity is doing them too many favors this time around. On this particular record, the follow-up to Girl with Fish. Because there are tracks like "Upside Down," for example, where I feel like chopping these songs down to such short lengths is really kind of like kneecapping their full potential. Either that, or I'm picking up a bit of a lack of adventure on the production or genre side too.

The song "Cradle," for example, is just a completely unremarkable, sleepy piece of slacker rock that I can't even bring myself to describe. Then again, going back to the brevity thing, tracks like "Paris," which are so dang short, I'm kind of left by the end of the song feeling, 'what was even the point?' Some of the lyrical highlights I mentioned earlier definitely do make some of these songs, for sure. The record kicks off with a very respectable opener too. And some of those more noise-pop and shoegaze-influenced moments are, again, very heavy and very dense and very interesting, despite the band sticking in a very dedicated way to a pretty lo-fi vibe.

But yeah, outside of that, I just didn't find quite as much to go back to on bitknot, honestly. Which is why I'm feeling about a strong 5 to a light 6 on this one.

Anthony Fantano, feeble little horse, forever.