The Weather Station is out today, finally fully with us in the world, and now more than ever, we need these songs of emotional and psychological complexity and interrogative clarity amid ambiguities. Take a listen and a look, buy a copy, and (re)discover the power of Tamara Lindeman’s singular songwriting, which is being compared to the short stories of Raymond Carver, or akin to “Sam Shepard writing haiku.”
In keeping with the “Western expanse” themes evident on Out of Range—warped tales of Western civ melting into those of the American West—and the “intoxicating” song’s title and lyrics (which name check Dutch Renaissance artist Brueghel the Elder), the video was shot on Super 8 film during the band’s EU tour last year in various locations, including the Bronze Age stone circle known as Long Meg and Her Daughters.
Hear the whole record before its Oct. 6 release. “I’ve been a fan for a while now and always quite enjoyed her albums, but this one is on another level. These songs sit in a place between thought and expression, where the music flows confidently from heart to tongue. It’s filled with feminist politics, kindred spirits, conversations and heartbreak, all well played as inspired gems. She’s lived these words. They are her being. They are her stories.” – Bob Boilen
Gold Flake Paint premieres a gorgeous, stately counterpoint to the rush of her first two singles from her self-titled album due on Oct. 6th. Read the lyrics, and also check out the 9/10 lead review in Uncut, in which Richard Williams argues that “no one else is writing true-life songs with such a command of nuance and ellipsis, with such generosity of unguarded emotion and careful economy of means, like Sam Shepard writing haiku.”
Watch the beautiful new video from The Weather Station, which SPIN calls “an inspired continuation of a rich tradition of intensely-disciplined, self-interrogative pop songwriting. The taut arrangements on The Weather Station, adorned here with aerial surges of strings, create The Weather Station’s own specific music universe, at turns claustrophobic or extending all the way towards a distant horizon.”
Like a stone eroded by years in the arroyo, Gun Outfit’s enveloping “Western expanse” aesthetic of guitar levitations and honky-tonk hexes has become gradually smoother over time. Their fifth LP ranks as their most brutally beautiful statement yet. Preorder Out of Range, and hear “Strange Insistence” via NPR Music, who call it “a song about giving into pleasure, and discovering the joys and pains of consequence, centered around an irregular groove that squiggles like heat waves off baked asphalt.” Pitchfork compared it to Merle Haggard and Terry Allen! Also: in memoriam John Ashbery and Orpheus.
Tamara Lindeman will release her self-titled and fourth album on Oct. 6th. After sharing lead single “Thirty,” “a song about joy at the precipice of despair,” she now presents the song’s accompanying self-directed video via The FADER, who write that Lindeman is “my favorite songwriter these past few years. Self-titled, the LP is a show of force in both what she sings and doesn’t. Another triumph.” Catch the full band on tour in the US and EU.
Pitchfork had some nice thoughts about “Thirty”, the lead single from The Weather Station’s upcoming self-titled album: “Few songwriters capture these subtle, shared moments with such fluidity.” The Guardian Observer New Review wonders, “Is Tamara Lindeman Americana’s best-kept secret?” And The New Yorker’s Amanda Petrusich opines that it’s “a song that could take a punch to the face,” on “the new record I’m most excited about right now.”
Head over to Aquarium Drunkard to check out James Elkington’s take on three Kinks tunes: “This Man He Weeps Tonight”, “Too Much On My Mind”, and “Get Back In Line.” James will be hitting the road this fall with Joan Shelley in support of his recently released Wintres Woma. You can catch him then, or in the coming week with Steve Gunn and Heron Oblivion.
Pre-order The Weather Station’s self-titled fourth album, and hear “Thirty” via NPR Music’s All Songs Considered and a Pitchfork track review. Songwriter Tamara Lindeman’s most fully realized and forthright statement to date, The Weather Station is a work of profound urgency, artistic generosity, and joy. The band tours North America and the EU this fall.
