Review: M Ward Inspired by Dream Imagery on ‘Supernatural Thing’

M. WARD
SUPERNATURAL THING
(ANTI-) 
*** 1/2

At times, M. Ward seemed like a pretty scary guy. His albums are mostly plied with atmosphere and ambiance, setting up a spooky scenario that’s often both haunting and harrowing. By his own admission, his songs are often inspired by dream imagery, and while they rarely reflect a nightmarish encounter, they’re frequently unnerving at the very least.

Given its auspicious title, Supernatural Thing might have been more of the same. Instead, it’s surprisingly serendipitous, with a couple of songs in particular, “New Kerrang” and “Engine 5,” sounding positively giddy by Ward standards. Mostly though, the material comes across like a series of soothing serenades, with “Too Young To Die,” “For Good,” the title track, and the luminous “Dedication Hour” all sounding particularly pleasing. Credit an A-list array of guest artists—First Aid Kit, Shovels & Rope, Scott McMicken, Neko Case, and Jim James among them—for helping to keep the mood light and lithe. Clearly though, Ward is similarly inspired. When you feel the line is growing thin between beautiful and strange, he sings at one point, diminishing his darker tones in the process.

So too, as if to mitigate the weight of his own auspicious presence, he opts for a pair of seemingly unlikely covers—a jazzy, nocturnal take on David Bowie’s “I Can’t Give Everything Away” (culled from the album Blackstar) and a pensive version on Daniel Johnston’s “Story of an Artist.” Granted, both of those artists could be deemed eccentrics in the same vein as Ward, but it’s still a daring move regardless.

Given the sources that inspired his last two offerings, both released in 2020—Migration Stories, an album about immigrants, and Think of Spring, which found him covering Billie Holiday’s classic catalog—Supernatural Thing veers in a decidedly different direction. His cast of characters has a lot to do with that, due to the fact that he frequently cedes them the spotlight, but here again, his mood is clearly brighter all around. And that ensures Supernatural Thing doesn’t remain so ominous after all.