Wicca Phase Springs Eternal announces new album 'Mossy Oak Shadow'
George Douglas Peterson

Wicca Phase Springs Eternal announces new album 'Mossy Oak Shadow'

Ricky Adams

From Midwest emo to SoundCloud rap to folk rock, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal (the project of Adam McIlwee) has worn many musical hats. Now, he’s announced a new album titled Mossy Oak Shadow – out September 19 via Run For Cover – which leans even further into the folk-rock direction hinted at in his more recent work.

Alongside the announcement, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal dropped two new singles from the upcoming album — “horseback” and “Enchantment” — both of which introduce the album’s new sonic palette. Check them out here:

McIlwee first made a name for himself in the emo scene as a member of Tigers Jaw, then pivoted into the SoundCloud rap world with the GothBoiClique collective, of which the late Lil Peep was a member, before launching his own project under the Wicca Phase Springs Eternal moniker.

Speaking on this next phase of the project, McIlwee said:

“I always kind of thought that as long as I have the Wicca Phase Springs Eternal name that I can do whatever I want. The name provides a framework for the lyrics and aesthetics of the project–my songwriting with a mystical overlay to it–and as long as I can make something work within that, then the genre doesn’t totally matter ... There’s always been acoustic songs on my records but usually they’re in the context of a beat-based Wicca Phase album. I think the idea here was to just kind of start fresh and go hard in this other direction. The temptation is to call it a country record. I don’t really think it’s that–but there’s acoustic guitar and slide guitar, and I think my interests and themes do have elements of country in sort of an archetypical way.”

The album notably includes a collaboration with Ethel Cain, billed as a duet between the two.

Mossy Oak Shadow is out September 19. Pre-order here. Full tracklist:

  1. Rough Roads
  2. Horseback
  3. Enchantment
  4. I Just Moved Here
  5. Magic Moment
  6. Meet Me Anywhere (feat. Ethel Cain)
  7. Looking Back
  8. I Get It
  9. Settler’s Bend
  10. Last Riders Crew
  11. I Was A Runner Once

What do you think?

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