Before we get into anything else, please listen to this album as loud as your device enables as it one of the best sounding albums I’ve heard in a long time. It’s a thing of sonic beauty.
We return to Tamara Lindeman’s The Weather Station and their 7th album, Humanhood. In 2021 we pretty much all loved their 5th album ‘Ignorance’. It was their career changing release and despite the lock down world that championed it, brought Lindeman to mainstream attention. She felt like a new discovery that just happened to have 4 previous albums under her belt.
Her debut album, ‘All of it Was Mine’, released in 2011 was her way of coping with the loss of someone very close in her life. She was not previously a musician, she was always deeply musical but she was an actor. I think it is telling that Lindeman has said of this new release that this is the album that the debut should have been. It is significantly more personally emotional than Ignorance, something that spending a little time with the album and the lyrics will underline.
Before we get into the tracks, a few overview points on the album. This is a 13 track album, that has differing energies through the first two thirds than it’s final third. The spoken word track, Irreversible Damage marks a pivot point in the album and three tracks that follow feel different to the nine that precede it. This is not a negative, just an observation. The tempo drops, the energy changes but the tracks are still beautiful. The final track, ‘Sewing’ is a gorgeous way to end the album.
Lindeman records this album with a 6 piece band comprising the Weather Station. They recorded mostly live as a band though it’s never clear how much is overdubbed? The sound of the album is incredible. I think partly this comes from the (relatively) live recording approach but also the post recording management of the sound. Lindeman gets a co-producer credit but was also critical to the mixing of the album. For me, when I listen to it, I am drawn immediately to the wind instruments that play a huge role in the overall sound. The bass is also a real stand out as is the percussion that is varied and adds drive but also a huge amount of texture to the tracks. There are semi hidden instruments that are easier to pick out after a number of listens and at the right volume , the banjo on the title track is a real stand out.
In terms of stand out tracks … and I am writing this on day 3 of my time with the album;
- Neon Lights is the clear radio friendly ‘single’ and could have sat very comfortably on Ignorance. To anyone with significant experience with Ignorance, they will feel like they are in familiar hands with the way that this track opens up the album.
- Keeping the radio friendly, more traditional rock feel going Neon Lights leads into Miror and then Window. David loves his runs of ridiculous tracks on albums and this trio is a belter. Just because I say ‘radio friendly’ these songs are not conventional radio rock. Lindeman has always sat in the middle of a triangle or rock, folk and jazz and this run of tracks punctuates this point perfectly.
- Track 6 is an ‘instrumental’ interlude of static and synth ambience, it’s only 45 ish seconds and hints that something is about to change.
- And Body Moves is that thing. Is this my favourite track? At the point of writing this it is but there is so much to choose from. This tracks feels so personal, for the writer and for the listener. It’s a truly beautiful experience. Synths are important to this track and they help the track wash over you if you choose … or pull you in if you choose. The backing vocals are a perfect accompaniment to the synths. The instrumentation builds and builds. Always calm but within that calmness is a stunning crescendo of sorts.
- The album moves into ‘Passage’ and then another short interlude and then into the stunning title track. This feels the most urgent track of the album. There is a sense of subtle anxiety that feels new. And perhaps Irreversible Damage is the respite that is required after that escalation. It is a longer, ‘instrumental’ track that has a spoken word element that sits super low in the mix.
- What’s left is three closing tracks, where the energy is lower, calmer, more classicly introspective. You get 2 ballads with Aurora, another shorter interlude between them.
- The final track of the three and of the album is ‘Sewing’. If Body Moves isn’t my favourite track then Sewing is. It could have been written by any of the best songwriters in the past 40 years. It has a timeless quality to it that instantly hits the ears and the emotions. It is to this album what Kintsugi is to Lana’s latest. But for me, it’s placement as the closer suits it’s qualities perfectly. The track is cut in 2 by a climactic synth sound that comes from nowhere and is soon gone. It’s a stunning sonic impulse that is as effective as it is unexpected.
I hope it’s clear that I already love this. I think it’s a stunning record. I think we will all like it. I think at least 2 of us will love it. It’s only January and I would be highly surprised if this is not in our top 10 for this year.
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