What does Baths sound like?

The sadness of chamber pop music glams up and decides that for tonight only, we’re gonna be messy on the dancefloor.

The review of ‘3 Negative Pop(?) Songs’ by Baths

Eclectic pop runs the gamut of all kinds of experimental pop-adjacent sounds. Baths has been part of that wide trawling net for a while. Their latest EP comes with a wonderful title, where Baths is definitely embracing skittish pop and dancefloor anthems, but each song is also quite sad and twisted. If a song is sad or twisted, can it still be a pop song? In Baths’ hands, yes. Yes, it can.

‘Wrecker’ is a dance anthem for homewreckers. Whilst the lyrics lure another person in to offer a way out of their current relationship, it’s structured around hyper-snappy beats. I’m reminded slightly of Jonsi’s ‘Shiver’ album, but with a hyper-pop twist. Synths bleep and bloop in a vacuum. They blister and bend unnaturally, including Will Wiesenfeld’s voice. His vocals suit the sassy pop stomps that the track brings, and the outro showcases his elastic range and rage superbly as the built-up desperation unleashes.

Where ‘Wrecker’ is vacuum-packed, ‘Yumyucker’ is a distorted and refracted crunch. The kickbeats and basslines are overblown so that it blows out the entire song. While the chorus recalls a playground-like nursery rhyme chant, everything else feels dangerous and aggressively harsh. Be careful with your subwoofers! I love that the song’s intentionally “bad” production is a comment on the mentality of a yumyucker, out to poison everything they touch for their own benefit.

The closing track is ‘The Fawn’. Baths takes on the chillout world, with sad piano rolls, empty, sparse, and soft synths, and a driving beat. There is a melancholic drift that the track is steeped in that permeates every morsel of sound beautifully. From the tinny percussion, the distant rainy vinyl spit, the hollow vocals, and the sucked-out bass, it’s beautifully withered. “Oh, I want to be held, and held too long. Cradled, like the clearing frames the fawn” is such a poignant lyric, too.

I discovered Baths with his excellent 2025 album ‘Gut’. Whilst Will has always dabbled in electronica, this is his most electronic pop release for some time, as his previous albums straddle experimental pop and indie rock. Whatever lens Baths is singing through, you’ll be assured that there is something important to say, something weird and unusual to experience, and a creative ride of memorable music will be enjoyed by everyone. Baths is one of the most consistent indie artists of the 2020s, and this is the perfect bite-sized way to slide into his world.

Recommended track: Wrecker

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