Look, maybe there’s no point in mentioning it anymore but in case you didn’t know, there’s so much cool shit coming out Pennsylvania that it’s almost suspicious. We often wonder if they’re testing some kind of mutant musician gene in the water out there between Philly and Pittsburgh, and the latest to make us do it is of course Feeble Little Horse.
Feeble Little Horse has been a mainstay in our headphones since we first heard 2023’s Girl With Fish but retroactively we’ve become big fans of the previous records as well, with each one offering a different journey through their desiccated, vaguely digital aesthetic.
When single “This is Real” released in 2025, we admit it took us a long time to actually hear it, let alone like it. Of course the song was great, but after becoming emotionally attached the way we do with all our favorites, knowing that the song doubled as a conscious goodbye to founding member Ryan Walchonski made us anxious on deep levels. Luckily the song torched any misgivings we might have had with it’s grungier, even gutsy-er style, and now that bitknot is officially here, any and all fears have been alleviated.
The band definitely went deep, and while no less authoritative when guiding listeners through their gorgeously depressing post-everything gaze, it takes a few tracks for the punch to build, and definitely plays the loud card less than you’d expect. At first, this might cause casuals to bristle, but rather than blast out the gate, Feeble Little Horse paces themselves here. By the time you get to the closing moments of the record, the non-linear sprawl actually reveals itself to be quantum home run.
As with all of their existing work, one of the highlights here is the how impossibly personal lyrics match with the casual delivery, but with bitknot, it doesn’t feel like we’re so removed. It’s like we’re almost in on it, but not quite – like an acidic, punky offshoot of experimental Midwest emo. We feel acoustic headroom ramp with “Poison” and “Shady” till the catharsis explodes from single “Dior,” the loudest, rawest thing on the first half of the record by pretty large distance. “Paris” and “Cradle” shimmer with that avant Pittsburg pop the way the best of their peers do, but they also double down on their most unique qualities. “Upside Down” is a semi-syrupy wonderland with hard autotune and chopped up samples. “Guts” feels like shoegaze played through a broken sound system. “Shopping,” for us, is when it all came together. Have you ever heard of retail therapy?
In all seriousness, bitknot is every bit as weird and worthy as anything they’ve put out before. Even if we were expecting a harder kick, Feeble Little Horse did us mercy by going with something more hypnotic and stable. We wouldn’t change it if we could.
Is stable a horse pun?
(Thanks for reading! If you’re looking for more music, check out our Bandcamp compilations here. If you like us, or possibly even love us, donations are always appreciated at the Buy Me A Coffee page here, but if you’re in a generous mood you can also donate to folks like Doctors Without Borders, the PCRF, Charity Water, Kindness Ranch, One Tail at A Time, Canopy Cat Rescue, or Best Friends Animal Sanctuary that could probably use it more – click on their names above to check ‘em out if you’re so inclined. Thanks again!)