Wednesday Return With “Elderberry Wine”

No, it’s not an Elton John cover. “Elderberry Wine,” the first Wednesday song since the band’s critically acclaimed 2023 LP Rat Saw God (which we named the #1 album of that year), is the dawn of a new era. Recency bias be damned, “Elderberry Wine” may already be one of Wednesday’s best tracks yet. The band lets go of their noise-rock foundations, choosing instead to flourish in the very same twang that often tails their punkiest impulses. Vocalist/guitarist Karly Hartzman sounds especially better than ever, singing sweetly about a romance that demands equal effort but with a lyrical flavor only she can summon. Lines like “the pink boiled eggs stay afloat in the brine,” “you’ll cry at commercials, at an unbolted leg scraping against the ground as the tilt-a-whirl goes around,” and “your eyes are the green of tornado sky” are beautifully smushed with Hartzman’s vocal idiosyncrasies. Getting to untangle her imperfect language remains a great, messy delight.

Hartzman says the song is about “the potential for sweet things in life (love, family, success) to become poison if not prepared for and attended to correctly.” “Elderberry is known as a healing fruit, and is an ingredient in many tonics and syrups to aid the immune system,” she continues. “One time however, my sister consumed them raw and it immediately induced vomiting. So ‘Elderberry Wine’ is ultimately a love song about creating just the right environment for fulfillment. There’s a delicate balance that needs to be created, especially in love, for two lives to intersect without poisoning each other.”