Charlie Horn Turns Grief Into Synth Glow on 'High Tide Already'

Charlie Horn releases his debut solo album, 'Rhythms Unexplained,' on November 13, and its centerpiece single "High Tide Already" is out now. The Cincinnati musician, best known as frontman of psychedelic rock band In The Pines, has built the record on an unusual foundation: a former Masonic Temple in Dayton, Kentucky, and an MCI JH16 16-track tape machine (a vintage analog recorder) that someone had thrown in the trash.

Horn and his collaborators restored the machine painstakingly. The result is a record where the recording process itself becomes part of the storytelling — modified electronic effects, vintage reverbs (echo units from the analog era) and atmospheric guitars shape each song's character.

What does "High Tide Already" sound like?

The track wraps an intimate meditation on grief in shimmering synthesizer textures and glistening melodies. Horn knows that a synthesizer can hold a memory just as powerfully as a photograph, and he lets the instrumentation provide its own kind of comfort, giving the song a luminous quality that feels deeply personal. The single captures the unpredictable waves of loss with remarkable tenderness — grief that arrives in tides rather than in a single flood.

The songwriter's imagination takes stranger turns elsewhere on the album:

• "Kate Welsh" explores the lingering presence of a former occupant of Horn's home.
• The title track is a moving tribute to his brother, who died in 2022.
• "Antlers" imagines an alternate life through the unusual perspective of a mounted pair of antlers.

These songs reveal a writer who can find extraordinary poetry in everyday objects, forgotten spaces and deeply personal experience. It's a modest trick with a large payoff: point the microphone at the mundane and the grief becomes specific.

Who made the record?

Horn produced the 10-song collection himself, with contributions from Michael Shular and Daniel Sutter. Much of the album was created with drummer Alex Dungan and synthesizer player Peter Foley. The full track listing:

• "Marble and Mud"
• "Kate Welsh"
• "My Eyes Will Adjust"
• "What's Been Chasing Me"
• "Rhythms Unexplained"
• "High Tide Already"
• "Antlers"
• "Acid Rain"
• "Hit the Deck"
• "Nothing to Me"

Where does Horn fit?

Listeners of Kurt Vile, Conor Oberst, Big Star and Jason Molina will recognize Horn's affection for heartfelt storytelling and beautifully textured arrangements. The album marks a creative extension of his work with In The Pines rather than a departure from it — vintage technology, country-tinged guitars and intimate songwriting converging with uncommon imagination. If "High Tide Already" sets the tone, November 13 will bring one of the year's quieter, stranger grief records.