Wonder House – Open House (EP Review)

Open House is the first extended play by Wonder House, a Philadelphia-based rock outfit.  The five-track project was released in 2023 – quite a long time for a review since the band has gone on to release another EP in 2024, Wonder Too.  

‘Train Wreck of a Day’ is the EP’s first song. It starts with a three-hit steel drum phrase. Then bass and strings kick in. There’s something sweet and artistic about the song’s introduction with the drums. The drum phrase disappears when strings and bass kick in, but that’s not to say the drums are gone.

Vocal don’t take much time to kick in, and we hear John Luther sing, ‘I’m having a train wreck of a day’. There’s something funny about this line – or perhaps the act of someone singing that they’re having a bad day. But it’s not just a bad day: it’s a train wreck of a day! That’s a vivid hyperbolic metaphor.

After waking up, the lyrical persona’s morning starts with them finding their bed on the side. Then there’s extremely cold coffee. It’s a series about unfortunate events song. But the lyrical persona is upbeat. John Luther’s vocals rise in energy when his persona addresses an imaginary person, whom he tells he’s fine, begging them not to worry. They say they’ll make the time, them begging the time – some tautology right there.

The day gets worse, the persona recounting a series of more unfortunate events. And then they tell their addressee that just like they said, they’ll get over it.

The feeling I get from the repeated utterances by the persona saying they’ll get over it, is that their addressee seems not to believe that they won’t get over it. What this does – or what you get – is the vocalist going from slow singing to raising their voice.

This is a song about grinding on even though the odds are stacked against you. The singing, when not strained, is easy singing – just like the instrumentation. However, you get the bluesy guitar, which adds a melancholic, or sour, feeling to the song.

Up next is ‘Good Old Days’. It starts with a different three-hit steel drum phrase. The singing and tone on this song are upbeat, and there are additional vocals from the other band members. On the surface, it’s a cheesy song. Wonder House here references the good old days. But it’s a thought-provoking song, the lyrical persona saying that nobody told them when they were living in the good old days. They also go on to talk about how the young don’t think about the past. At some point, the soulful guitar and drums take over. There’s a lot of vocal variation in this song. The song stands in direct contrast with ‘Train Wreck of a Day’.

Although you still get the usual drums and bluesy guitar in ‘Sliding by the Window’, the song starts differently. The vocals here are delivered in a deeper register. Again, we encounter an upbeat song. Here, the EP enters the realm of romance. The lyrical persona talks about dark purple eyes, strawberry wine, and then mentions that ‘I wanted to know you’.

They reveal that their addressee made them believe. Then they launch into vocals that soar, invoking the rainbow, moon and mountain. At some point, John Luther hums ‘na na na’. Although the bluesy guitar takes a solo for a while (backed by drums of course), before that I feel like there’s a bit of a crunchy guitar.

If the distorted guitar is missing on the EP, it starts ‘Hush’. The song opens with the humming of ‘na na na’. It’s another energetic song, the vocals too fast. However, John Luther mixes the vocals. At some point, the voice drops, and you hear him go ‘Hush! Hush!’. Again we’re in Loveland, although the song speaks to heartbreak.

‘Drifting’ closes out the EP. It’s partly a whistling song. One of those songs that you find yourself whistling along. Lyrically, the song’s quite interesting. The persona is many things – or at least could be many things. They’ve been a gambler, they’ve been a king, they’re the Dalai Lama – but for all the things they could do, they tell the addressee that they’d rather be ‘drifting with you’.

SCORE/Excellent: Vocally and lyrically, the EP is unafraid to be experimental – even a little clownish. You hear both humming and whistling. To be fair, on these fronts the EP is more outstanding than merely excellent. What makes me settle for ‘excellent’, however, is the instrumentation. You get the blues guitar and drums, sure, but that’s the usual fare. The crunchy guitar was barely used. Still, the vocals and lyrics impressed me once again.

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