• Courtesy
• Wren Kitz, The Thinker

(Feeding Tube Records, cassette, digital)

In March, Burlington musician Wren Kitz released the second volume of Natural History, a two-album study in field recordings and nature's inherent music he started in 2022. Now, the singer-songwriter returns with a traditional, song-based record, The Thinker. But "traditional" is a relative term, because Kitz's music is always boundary-pushing, disorienting and a little weird.

His new work epitomizes nearly 10 years of experimentation across seven albums. In some ways, The Thinker brings Kitz back to his roots, and in others it transcends them.

His first two albums, For Evelyn and Dancing on Soda Lake, were full of vaporous indie-folk outfitted with orchestral instruments and left-field found-sound elements. With Lovebird and Early Worm, he added brash rock stylings to the mix, letting his guitar shred and simmer over bigger, bolder drums.

The Thinker coalesces everything for which Kitz is known into his most accessible music to date. It's also noteworthy for including marquee-level collaborators: William Lawrence of folk-rock band the Felice Brothers drums throughout; and MorganEve Swain, front person of post-metal outfit the Huntress and Holder of Hands, contributes strings and vocals.

In the past, Kitz's songs have worn the sonic equivalent of shrouds. He sings with a breathy, trembling quality that complements the misty mood he and his bandmates create. His new tunes, while still ethereal, feel more tangible and immediate than ever.

Cradled by twilight organs and anticipatory strings on opener "The Rise the Fall," he begins the album with confounding yet ineffably meaningful turns of phrase: "The rise the fall / The beckoners call / The fleeting writing / On the wall / A weeper weeps / On silent streets / His echoes cradle / In my arms," he sings.

On the title track, blips and static conjured by ham radio enthusiast and carpenter Noah Burton fizz and fade as the baroque tune takes shape. Morphing from sparse and clipped to grand splendor awash in cymbals and strings, the song is full of yearning and drama. "The thinker keeps thinking / And resting his head on his arm," he sings as the song comes to a close, referencing the famous Auguste Rodin sculpture seen on the album's cover.

Field recordings encroach like lichen at the edges of his songs: a campfire burns on "Machine Gun Mind the Butterfly"; a marshscape concludes "Vast Amiss"; and on "No Bottom Pond," a particularly bold psych-rock anthem, a murder of crows begins to circle long before you realize they've arrived.

By bringing together his most fearless creative impulses and the strongest songcraft of his career, Kitz cuts an album that stands as a culmination and a new beginning. The Thinker showcases a singular Vermonter's deep, sprawling thoughts.

The Thinker is available at feedingtuberecords.bandcamp.com, wrenkitz.bandcamp.com and on major streaming services.