109. Album Review of Blow by ExWife
Originally Published on April 4th, 2025
About the Artist
Rock and roll derives from a plethora of places. It can be angry. It can be liberating. It can be political, philosophical, psychological, or romantic. It can be therapeutic, revolutionary, or it can be about revelation. It can be progressive, it can be nostalgic, and it can most definitely be sexy.
ExWife choose to not define themselves because they recognize this. They simply perform and leave the defining to their audience. Their mission: bringing “their version of 90’s rock to 2025.” They describe themselves as “when you hear that tone and you get a silly feeling in your insides, like the first time you see tits or ass.” I mean, who doesn’t like that feeling?
ExWife, out of Oregon in the Pacific North West, are Alexandria Bonanno, Nicolas Kauffmann, Josh Mahurin-Chavez, and Kadin Monegan. They’ve been compared to artists like Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, and The Breeders. Personally, I hear a mix between Hole and The Joy Formidable.
ExWife debuted on February 21st 2025 with their debut singles Wild West and Blow, which were simultaneously released ahead of their debut album.
About the Album
Blow is the debut album of the Oregon-based rock quartet, ExWife. At nearly an hour run length, Blow is a 14-song rock anthology of sex, break ups, and reflection. Mostly, it reflects on the varying degrees of emotional pain. It was recorded at Sonic Lounge, produced by Alexandria Bonanno, and mastered at Numberstation Studio.
About the Music
Blow opens with a big, anthemic, uptempo-groove, called Shadows. The two guitars are panned to the sides, bass is center, and the drums are panned slightly left, center, and slightly right. It sounds like the drums are panned in a manner that is the reverse of how a kit would be set up, which interesting.
Alexandria’s vocals are backed into the mix, somewhat, which really gives the work that true nostalgic 90’s grunge feel. Her vocal style is very similar to that of Tori Amos, as promised. She has a uniquely high range for grunge music and it really brings a quality of femininity to the music that sounds different to the norm.
One of my favorite songs on the album is First Cut, a grunge-nostalgia piece that sounds like a combination of guitars played in the style of Weezer with a vocal performance reminiscent of Nirvana. Bonanno’s vocals, in this song, match an energy that Kurt Cobain possessed at times, sounding a little drunk or depressed as he sort of sunk into the lyrics of the song. A good example would be Something in the Way or Heart-Shaped Box (the verses).
Lyrically, the next song Echoes explore darker themes that seem to identify a depressive state of being numb in an unhappy relationship.
Bad Girl slows things down a bit, as it is a ballad accompanied by a Rhodes keyboard part. It’s also one of the shorter songs on the album, barely longer than 2 minutes.
Cigarette is a brilliant vocal performance as Bonanno almost goes into character for the verses, performing in a pseudo-southern accent, and almost doing a sing-songy hinted impression of a yodel, before reverting to her vocal style in the chorus. The guitars really set the tone for this song, with the fuzzy rhythm locking down a mood and the crunch lead providing dynamically diverse moments.
I think the best song on the album is Wild West. Production sounds very Blue Album. I love how the song builds with the vocals as we approach the end of the song. As Bonanno repeats “Tell me I’m funny” the song climaxes and dies to a sweet, sweet resolution.
Bonanno’s vocals just continue to get more impressive with another one of my favorites in Big Dipper. She really gets into the zone here as she doesn’t just sing this song, she performs it. The song’s vibe revolves around the line “I sold my soul for your kiss.” I love the line “the truth is you’re the weak and I’m the tyranny,” sung in a manner as if she is talking down to a player who has been caught with their pants down. This song just reclaims power.
Mediating Revisited closes out Blow with an acoustic ballad accompanying Bonanno’s weeping retelling of the apparent collapse of her marriage. Her voice is pleading as she remembers the end, the forks in the road, and considers other outcomes. It is one one the most endearing things I’ve ever heard.
Final Thoughts
When I first began doing Fifteen Minutes of Fame, it was with the hopes I would find albums like Blow. There was no attempt to mask the fact that this album wasn’t produced at Abbey Road, or on Music Row or Ocean Way. ExWife embraced their sound. They are locked in as a band.
Furthermore, this album deals with real pain. I am not here to diminish anyone’s experiences; pain is pain. I have no doubt Miley Cyrus went through it when her marriage ended. As a participant in a very tough divorce myself, I can say that it sucks, no matter how necessary it might be or how much money or fame a person might have. So, when Flowers pulled a big 4 Grammy last year, I was clapping with the rest of them. But it is a different world.
ExWife are champions of our world. Bonanno is so articulative with how she expresses her pain that if she were to sing about a cut, I could feel the laceration on my own skin. They may never win a Grammy - or maybe they will. It is more meaningful to me that they made me feel something real. I would take that any day.
ExWife are nostalgic. ExWife do exhibit sex appeal. But I found something more after “undressing” their album. I found Pain. It’s a pain that is real and relatable. It lingers in the background of every theme and then, in places, it just takes over.
Blow is about putting our foot on the gas and seeing how fast we can go before we lose control. ExWife want us to know that the beauty of this isn’t in seeing how far we get. The beauty was always in the wreck.
They are on YouTube where they have visualizers and shorts of performances.
Blow released to the world on March 7th. It is available on Spotify, Bandcamp, and wherever else you might stream music.
GO PRESS PLAY!
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