Many, many times I hear a song of yours and think, This is the one that will crack it all open. "Black Wave" is one of those songs. It's like this is a track from your Physical Graffiti, a little rough and rangy, looser but with that muscular talent ever pulsing below the surface, encompassing many moods and emotions, but very sure in itself, in command.

I love the slow grinding pace, the intro that sets up tones of both dark and light, places your voice and lyrics also will go, shifting gears, and then that dissonant "My Sharona" note right before it softens and your lyrics begin. It's so gentle at first that it sounds like a child's parable, and then becomes very grown up. Your lyrics, which have always seemed sort of absolute to me in their realization, preternaturally so when you were young, have yet matured and seasoned into such a self-possessed poetry. They are as signature as your voice.

The voice here is so deeply mature, wise, able to embrace and encompass beauty and darkness, paradox, gentleness and something a little sinister, a little rock and roll. It is a voice I trust. The chorus, with its lilting Nirvanna lyricism, is vintage (you've been doing it since before Nirvana), and Carl's guitar is so attuned with you melodically and tonally as to be itself like a kind of Greek chorus. I love how philosophy, mysticism, spirituality, profound humanism, romanticism, sublime poetry, and rock-and-roll ethos all commingle in your work. That is how it should be! This is some really exciting music.
- Ethan Dunn

Written & Produced by Billy Webster
Lead Guitar by Carl Basler
Recorded at the Jersey Dream, 2023

*Waves are often seen as symbols of growth, renewal, and transformation. At the same time, waves can also represent the unpredictability of life, reminding us that we must learn to navigate its ups and downs as they come.