Creative Writing is the latest musical endeavor from members of Huevos II, Luxor Rentals, Sore Eros, Jeanines and Estrogen Highs. Formed in late 2023, the group builds upon their previous experiences with songs that buzz, roar, and chime in ways that anyone of any gen – X or otherwise – with an ear for indie guitars would plead nolo to. Their self released True 90s EP "serve[d] as a nod to the decade with a bit of a hangover from the late 80s college contingent holding on as well, swerving through SST, Homestead, and Matador catalogs like a shopping list," according to online music zine Raven Sings The Blues. At the same time, principal songwriters Wes Nelson and Patrick Battleship avoid overly stylized genre exercises with songs that are direct yet lyrically elliptical, tongue always implanted firmly in cheek.
 
Creative Writing's first full length, Baby Did This presents ten songs that vary widely in mood and intensity, from the opening track "I Love You," an ode to solidarity in dark times, to the lucid dreaming of "Rain" which closes the album. In between we find allusive examinations of alienated mundanity Memory Light, Sister, Feel and Glass Days each cover this territory in their own offhand ways. Nelson's songs Hallway (a reworking of a song previously recorded for Luxor Rentals' Burn Your Trash EP) and Slice & Dice enter darker areas of surreal angst, altogether. Can't Thank You Enough's Chilton-esque chords chime over a loping rhythm section and backing harmonies that spread like sunshine on an open highway. "I'm growing up, I'm heading out / I follow signs and leave the south." The song acts as an oblique homage to the wisdom of passion as it matures, casually eliciting an unnameable essence, the je ne sais quoi of that object of one's desire -- "it's how you got your la la la la la la la..." Pop nonsense signifying a gratitude that words can't quite name. A cover of the Peter Blegvad's paean to narcolepsy, "Just Woke Up" rounds out the collection. Self-recorded by the band and engineered/mixed over a span of 18 months by guitarist Jeff Morkeski, the album emphasizes structure and discipline over more spontaneous gestures.
 
FFO -- Big Star, The Chills, Game Theory, Wipers, For Against, Felt


"The band has a way of balancing the soft ruffle of power pop with a hidden knife edge. They swing towards the broken skin and bruised hearts of indie outliers, feeling more kinship with the pop overwhelm of Game Theory and the taut discomfort of Toy Love than with the more often cited signifiers of punk and power pop. There’s a gauziness hung over the record, a feeling of peering in at the band through the dirty windows of the past. The production adds the kind of haze that used to be ubiquitous in photos, but ebbed as indoor smoking disappeared. Every song on Baby Did This evokes the back corner stage in a college town; a working band banging out hooks that rise above the clink of beers. The band pins jangles to a thick miasma of melancholy, just perfect for the chill that’s about to enter the air. Some records are just built for Autumn and there have been fewer perfect sweater weather slabs out this year. This one’s destined to charm the record collectors, but it’s a near perfect dose of pop for all the indie upstarts out there."

-- Raven Sings the Blues

"[The] songs are built on riffs, memorable moody riffs, but the ones on the likes of Power Pop. They grab you in an hypnotic way and instrumentally is where the album grabs you. These are almost soundscapes, melodic, but gripping. The playing is so damn great[...]it is an album to be played from start to finish showing how limited playlists can be. But there are personal standouts for me. Memory Light is more than a little heavier Dropkick or early Teenage Fanclub, fantastic Jangle Pop with a hint of the West Coast. Can't Thank You Enough even has a touch of Americana[...]But the best may have been saved till last. Rain approaches 8 minutes in length and is probably the best Psych Pop that you will hear all year."

-- I Don't Hear a Single blog

"Baby Did This (out now on Meritorio Records) is a jangly, fuzzy, quietly weird gem that refuses to sit still. It’s also a surprisingly mature and layered record, the kind that keeps opening up on repeat plays. At first you’ll grab onto the more melodic side of Creative Writing—like the the jangle delight of Hallway & Sister, the sunburst chorus of Can’t Thank You Enough, and the moody rocker Slice & Dice, but soon the darker, stranger corners start to pull you deeper in. By the time Rain closes the album, you realize the whole thing has been built for the long game.

I’ll admit, I wasn’t sold on the band name at first. But after living with Baby Did This, I can’t imagine a more fitting one—these songs are stories, sketches, sideways notes that sneak up on you until they’re etched in memory."

-- Add To Wantlist blog

" Fans of bands like The Vulgar Boatmen and fellow New Englanders Miracle Legion (not to mention the Paisley Underground) will find plenty to enjoy on Baby Did This, which starts with a four-minute meandering introduction called “I Love You” and continues into jangle pop hits like “Hallway” and “Sister” with a casual indifference. The haze attached to songs like “Can’t Thank You Enough” and “Glass Days” doesn’t diminish their pop appeal, though–it’s only when the clouds part for sunny power pop like “Memory Light” that Creative Writing’s greyscale streak appears in hindsight. And then you’re ready for the seven-minute psychedelic-Paisley-fog pop song called “Rain” that closes out Baby Did This."

-- Rosy Overdrive

"As a lifelong R.E.M. fan, jangly rock music is nearly always going to be a winner in my book, so while I understand that I'm grading on a curve to some extent, this album rules. Feels like it's right out of this era, with gorgeous melodies and great guitar work. If "Can't Thank You Enough" and "Memory Light" don't work for you, I'm not sure what to say. One of the best of the week, and direct from our backyard at that."

-- If It's Too Loud blog

"The Luxor Rentals tape was a highlight of my 2023, more of a catalogue of woods-jangle ideas, Dino steamroller tube hits and a great Godz cover, but the sharpest song from there, “Hallway,” gets rearranged for Baby Made This’s second track, and sets an enervated storybook pace that slows, melts and fuzzes/frizzes out as to become absolutely gorgeous, gold-leaf dappled balladry by the end of the record, a gradual slide so graceful and deep you won’t even notice until the leaves are all around you, until The Dream Syndicate and The Three O’Clock are the same band."

-- Heathen Disco