Another day, another great Live from Sonic Ranch video from Koe Wetzel.
He’s been giving us a peak into the recording process of his fifth studio album that dropped in September, Hell Paso, and has already released studio sessions of “Better Without You,” “Creeps,” and “Money Spent.”
Today, though, he dropped a studio video of the lead single from the record “April Showers,” which he co-wrote with Ben Burgess and Jaren Johnston.
It’s the quintessential “goodbye anthem” that slots perfectly into the Koe Wetzel wheelhouse, and what immediately stood out to me upon watching this particular video for the first time was how good his vocals sound here.
The original production is super loud and rock-leaning, which I love and definitely fits the song, don’t get me wrong, but it does overshadow the other elements just a tad.
I think this key and live version with his band just takes it to a whole other level, and I also think his voice is easily the most “underrated” thing about him as an artist, for lack of a better word.
When he’s at his best, his vocals are just incredible, and you can definitely hear that in this rendition.
This wasn’t even close to my favorite song on the Hell Paso tracklist, either, but it’s now my favorite out of these live studio sessions so far, with more likely coming in the next few weeks.
And apparently, it took quite a few takes to get this one right… 36 or 37, to be exact, according to Koe (but I’d probably take that large estimation with a grain of salt):
“‘April Showers, take 36, 37. Who fuckin’ knows at this point. Tornillo, Texas, live at Sonic Ranch studios.”
Again, I reiterate, I really hope he’ll consider doing a real deal live album one day…
And how could we leave out the awesome music video directed by John Park, which gives us a glimpse at Koe’s last day on Earth as a meteor is about to strike… ending it all: