Wishy Return on Sophomore Album “Nature’s Pill”
Amid a wave of 90s rock nostalgia, Wishy have established themselves as a bright and immediate voice in Indy’s music scene. Now combining the shoegaze-tinged indie rock of their debut with the pop hooks they developed on their 2025 EP, “Nature’s Pill” is a tidy 12-track package that glimmers and ripples like water under sunlight. Stacks of guitars are balanced with vocal harmonies, trading off melodies that soar and tumble in cycles against a punchy, propulsive rhythm section. Every song feels fully considered, paced to maintain energy across the runtime but never cutting itself off too early. The result is a jangly, noisy, beautiful collection that’s extremely easy to enjoy.
While the instrumentals are upbeat, the lyrics are more emotionally ambiguous. The freedom found in post-breakup listlessness on “All the Rage,” FOMO and social anxiety on “Shift,” and an emotionally confounding relationship on “Mona Lisa;” the confusion and joy and sadness in each of these songs blend and melt into each other. Even the free-spirited “Lovesick” is tempered by details like the subject cutting the dyed parts of their hair in preparation for their grandmother’s funeral. But through these reflections on messy situations and bittersweet feelings is an insistence that life is made richer for them.
The result is a jangly, noisy, beautiful collection that’s extremely easy to enjoy.
Consider standout track “Sensational.” The opening 50 seconds come in cascading layers: cowbell and backbeat, bass and tambourine, doubled guitars, distorted vocals. The track lives up to its name with a fully developed soundscape, reflecting the song’s theme of the euphoria of living despite the noisy, smothering trappings of modern times. Though Wishy’s sound is thoroughly rooted in the 90s, the slick production and topical subject matter across the album keep it planted in the current day. At points it may be a little too sleek, too frictionless compared to the rougher edges of their previous work, but I find the increasingly catchy melodies a worthy tradeoff.
“Nature’s Pill” shines brightest in its biggest moments, when the guitars go full force and the singers combine their voices to a near-shout. But the tempo slows down and the drums mellow out for the closer “Party World,” where the band escapes to a fantasy world. It wraps up the album in a fuzzy blanket, and while it’s not my favorite track it invokes some of my favorite things in music: self-expression, emotional connection, and the invitation to community. It was a joy to go on this trip with Wishy, and I’m grateful they brought me along.