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Katie Crutchfield has always been one to weather the storm rather than seek shelter from it. On "Out In The Storm," the fifth Waxahatchee album, she emerges from the wreckage of personal upheaval with her most powerful and cohesive statement yet – a blazing testament to survival that crackles with the electricity of someone who's finally learned to harness lightning.

The Alabama-born songwriter had been building toward this moment for years, but the path wasn't easy. Following 2015's "Ivy Tripp," Crutchfield found herself grappling with the dissolution of a long-term relationship, struggles with alcohol, and the general existential weight that comes with approaching thirty in a world that seems increasingly unhinged. Rather than retreat into the bedroom recording aesthetic that marked her earlier work, she made a crucial decision: it was time to plug in and turn up.

Working with producer John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth) at Headroom Studios in Philadelphia, Crutchfield assembled her most formidable lineup yet, featuring her twin sister Allison on keyboards, Katherine Simonetti on bass, and Ashley Arnwine behind the kit. The result is a sonic evolution that feels both natural and revelatory – Waxahatchee's indie folk roots now shot through with veins of classic rock gold, creating something that nods to the '90s alternative canon while remaining distinctly contemporary.

The album announces its intentions immediately with "Never Been Wrong," a churning rocker that finds Crutchfield wrestling with self-doubt over a bed of distorted guitars and propulsive drums. Her voice, always her greatest instrument, has gained new dimensions of power and control, capable of intimate whispers and full-throated roars often within the same song. It's the sound of an artist who's discovered she doesn't need to choose between vulnerability and strength – she can embody both simultaneously.

"Silver" stands as perhaps the album's greatest triumph, a shimmering meditation on memory and loss that builds from delicate fingerpicking to a soaring, cathartic chorus. Crutchfield's lyrics have always been her secret weapon, but here she achieves a new level of specificity and universality, painting scenes so vivid you can smell the Alabama humidity: "I recall the yellow daylight / The feeling of the summer air." It's the kind of song that makes you nostalgic for places you've never been.

The title track serves as the album's emotional centerpiece, a six-minute epic that chronicles the aftermath of romantic collapse with unflinching honesty. "I'll be fine, I know how to shake it off," Crutchfield sings, but the tremor in her voice suggests otherwise. The song builds slowly, adding layers of instrumentation like gathering storm clouds, before erupting in a cathartic guitar solo that feels like emotional purging set to music.

"Recite Remorse" and "8 Ball" showcase the album's stylistic range, the former a jangly indie-pop gem that wouldn't sound out of place on college radio circa 1994, while the latter strips things back to showcase Crutchfield's gift for melody over spare arrangements. Even at its most rocked-out, "Out In The Storm" never loses sight of the songs themselves – these aren't just exercises in volume, but carefully crafted compositions that happen to benefit from the full-band treatment.

The album's sequencing deserves special praise, creating an emotional arc that mirrors the process of working through trauma. By the time we reach closer "Sparks Fly," there's a sense of hard-won peace, even if the scars remain visible. "I've been talking to my shadow / Hanging out with my echo," Crutchfield sings, acknowledging the solitude that recovery often requires while suggesting she's finally comfortable in her own company.

Five years later, "Out In The Storm" feels like a pivotal moment not just in Waxahatchee's catalog, but in the broader landscape of indie rock. It arrived at a time when many of Crutchfield's peers were still wrestling with how to evolve beyond their initial lo-fi incarnations, and provided a blueprint for growth that didn't sacrifice authenticity for ambition. The album's influence can be heard in everyone from Snail Mail to Soccer Mommy, artists who understand that emotional honesty and sonic power aren't mutually exclusive.

More than anything, "Out In The Storm" endures because it captures something essential about the process of becoming – the messy