Shield of Faith by My Guitar Is Trying to Kill Me

For fans of Wilco, Shallowater, Sunny Day Real Estate, dream pop, and the smoky summer nights of the apocalypse, Shield of Faith by My Guitar Is Trying to Kill Me brings an Americana twang to today’s popular blend of dreamy post-rock-adjacent styles, building grand emotional swells while retaining an approachable folksiness. With long, dynamic structures, intimately whispered vocals, and prominent backing brass, this record lives in the same neighborhood as the windmill sound while countering that distinctively British scene with something equally distinctly American. The mellower moments of the record most transparently reveal the Americana influences, with lap steel guitar and acoustic guitar tracing classic melodies which rise to the surface as the noisy electric guitars give way. Even in those climaxes characterized by shoegazy guitars, a sound uncoincidentally also pulled from British influences, a clear aesthetic of Americana still pulls through by hiding in the nuances of the vocal melodies, a constant presence which easily earns this record a prominent spot in the contemporary post country movement.