WINGTIPS - On Trial (2024) [Hi-Res]

If you’ve been following Wingtips since the release of their exceptional LP of goth-pop Exposure Therapy, the electronics forward sound of their latest album probably won’t be a huge surprise. After all, 2021’s Cutting Room Floor was very much a synth-driven affair, albeit one where Vincent Segretario’s guitar still played a major role in service of more overtly dance and pop oriented songwriting. On Trial feels like a natural progression in Segretario and Hannah Avalon’s work as Wingtips (especially in light of their industrial side-project Visceral Anatomy), with their typically strong songwriting keeping their various stylistic diversions on course.

Given how much the record feels like Wingtips trying on some new musical ideas for size, it’s fitting that they come out of the gate with “Hit and Run”, a track that starts with a surprisingly straightforward bit of bouncy electro-house type programming, a course it maintains until its big singalong chorus breaks out, followed closely by some uncharacteristic but not unwelcome blasts of guitar chug. Those little musical feints aren’t necessarily the rule here, although they do provide a lot of the record’s best moments; Tim Capello (yes, the guy from The Lost Boys) busts out a tremendous sax solo on “The Verdict” as a euphoric accompaniment to the song’s laidback vocal take from Avalon, while “Confess” and “Escape Plan” flirt with italo-disco and NRG sounds.

Importantly, every track is built around a solid melody or hook, many of which hearken back to their earlier, more explicitly goth and darkwave-styled material. Yes, “The Trial” is a nice minimal bit of bubbly synth bass and drums, but you can hear their rock ambitions come out in how Segretario’s vocal lines fill out the sparse arrangement. Similarly it’s not hard to imagine “Let Go” or “The Break” as more explicitly goth-pop type songs, especially the latter, which leverages a guest vocal from Ronnie Stone for extra oomph, giving the track a bit of futurepop gravitas.

For its variety, there’s a nice thread that runs through On Trial, a unity of concepts and ideas (one bolstered by the judiciary track titles and their specific sequencing). Leaving aside the specific aesthetics of this record, you can hear the characteristics that have become Wingtips’ calling cards, namely that they know their way around a hook, and how to get it across. To wit, whatever Segretario and Avalon do, it comes out sounding like Wingtips, allowing them to expand their identity without ever compromising their core appeal; good songs, well performed.