Opener ‘City Life’, a reserved country track with Key’s trembly vocals placed front and centre, is about the fear of getting on the wrong side of drink and so-called “good times”, while ‘Lucky Man’ sounds like swingin’ barroom country played at half pace, with shades of Father John Misty, the vocals getting increasingly throaty and whiskey-burned. Key says the song was written on a whim after watching the GOP debates, and is all about a certain Republican clown (yes there are lots of those, but this is about that one in particular). ‘Litany’ is a more sedate acoustic folk song, but with impassioned vocals.

“Well if God made me
its proof that God could make a mess.
And if God make you its proof that he could do much better than the rest”

The EP then takes a new direction, with a trio of songs based on the legend of the Mothman, a humanoid moth creature that is said to stalk West Virginia. Key explains in the blurb: “[The Mothman] may or may not be a cult leader in the vein of Charles Manson, who may or may not be in collaboration with the Russians in a plot to escalate the Cold War…No.1 is the credo, No.2 is the origin story, No.3 is where the shit hits the fan”.

The vocals on ‘Mothman No. 1 (…at night I will grow wings)’ have the fervoured twang of a preacher, as if Key is delivering his verses from a dark and dusty stage in a stifling hot tent at some God-fearing convention (“Go bathe in holy water/ Go make your body new / I got the loaves and fishes and a good idea what we could do”), while ‘Mothman No. 2 (…sunflowers into the bonfires)’ is all crackled electric guitar and wobbly, echoed vocals, Key sounding burned out, all staring tired eyes and an exhausted twichy stance. The final track, ‘Mothman No. 3 (Zacheus in the clocktower with a .45)’, is a piano-led ballad, with shades of Timber Timbre, which details the story of the Mothman and its purported association with the collapse of the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant:

“Talk to your daughters
and talk to your sons
Steer clear of the bridge
before the whole town burns”

You can get Grows Wings as a name-your-price download via the Tyler Key Bandcamp page.

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