Oakland's Mildred are back, and they've been sitting on a gem. Their album Fenceline dropped in April, and if you love that post-Pavement, Silver Jews slacker twang cottage industry, this one belongs on your shelf. Here's the thing about this band: they play loose, easy, unhurried. But there's a lightweight melancholia hanging over every track, and it gives the whole record a real ache.
Four singer-songwriters trade off here, each one drawling with a tender melodic touch. That rotation keeps things fresh across the runtime. Think Friendship, but leaning harder into country and lifting a little out of the gloom, and you're close.
"Bird Laugh" is the moment worth your time. It's a sleeper, the kind of track that creeps up slow and lodges itself somewhere deep. The band's easygoing looseness carries it, but so does that quiet sadness underneath.
Fenceline proves Mildred understand the assignment. Twang, tenderness, and just enough heartache. Go press play.