The Weather Station, Young Guv, and Sam Jr.
The Weather Station
How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars // Next Door Records
I can say with full confidence that Tamara Lindeman is one of the greatest poets to emerge from the Canadian music landscape. The Weather Station’s latest release, How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars, is a gorgeously devastating stripped down collection of 10 songs that finishes the sentences after the semicolons on their 2021 release, Ignorance. Lindeman’s writing is never free of questions–the state of the earth, her humanity, what it even means to be a “good” person–these are the questions that leave Lindeman up at night, unsure if she will ever find the peace she so desperately seeks.
On Ignorance we hear the chaos of a busy world, as if Lindeman is in the midst of a loud, crowded street trying to speak over all the noise. “Am I ever understood? Am I hidden by this hood?” she sings on “Wear The World”. We can hear her pleading with white knuckles for those around her in the crowd to hear her, truly hear her, to wake up and realize that the world can not go on being harmed with no consequences.
Yet on How Is It we hear a marked shift; it is not as though Lindeman has given up, but her focus has shifted from trying to plead with the other to trying to make peace with herself internally for all that has happened, and all that is to come. It is as though we quite literally hear her coming inside from the busy, crowded street, sitting down at her piano, and singing for herself. In a grim way, we hear a swan song of sorts, as though she is preparing her bed for a final rest. We hear this most clearly on “Endless Time” as Lindeman sings that we have come to the end of an endless time–quite literally, a world that has been around for billions of years now threatened by mere humans with a lust for power and wealth. She sings “we can still walk out on the street and buy champagne grapes, strawberries and lilies in November rain; it never occurred to us to have to pay”.
In each of these 10 songs Lindeman asks a core question about what it means to be a human in a dying world–nay, a world being killed. It is vulnerable and poignant to admit that even in the midst of all the questioning and searching, not many answers surface: “I don’t understand anything the way I’m supposed to, I drag every river for meaning, scrape my hand on every ceiling. I never know what to say or not say, what to honour or betray in any given day”.
There is much to be said about this album, but I would be remiss if I did not praise The Weather Station for their willingness to delve into the pain and messiness of the world without finding the need to wrap everything up in a glossy finish with a pink bow. Yet at the same time, Lindeman does not shy away from delighting in the beauty of nature, the songs of birds and the colours of the foliage, even as she knows she is slowly saying goodbye; “I swear to god this world will break my heart”.
- Lana Winterhalt
Young Guv
Guv III // Hand Drawn Dracula Records
A journey of truth, love, and loss. With that in mind, you have the delivery of GUV III. An album that came to be when Young Guv aka Ben Cook and band were abruptly quarantined in a New Mexico desert with a cancelled US tour. What does an artist do while trapped? Time was spent sweating out lyrics while living in what the band called a Earthship.
Dive right in put on your dancing shoes. Turn on your boom box time machine back to about 55 years ago to a Rolling Stones mixed with The Beatles legendary sound "It’s Only Dancing" will get you moving, wanting to jump up and dance "I just want to show the world how I can slide". Leaving you craving that deep solid rhythm playing this treasure on repeat.
Embrace the feelings with this next song. An expression of being down and out but finding someone to lift you up again. Finding hope and lighting one's spirit. Let the love shine through: "like the sung through the trees". The gift of love on a "Good Time" can be a glimpse of hope had by all. Fabulous tune of reassuring vocals and lyrics. Brought together with again a steaming romantic rhythm. A perfect date night tune.
While striking out with an upbeat diverse rhythmic flare, "Some Old Fool" offers a sincere representation of lyrics. Ben is no stranger in belonging to the club of rejection - "I was dying to be with you all the time but it's so hard to breathe when you're barely alive".
The album is dynamic and offers up many more enticing musical master pieces to explore. It traces a vision of what being a living soul is all about, cemented to an existence everyone may relate to, seeing through the eyes of the beholder.
Falling in love with a new band is like meeting a new best friend. Young Guv and I have been roommates for a week as I listen, live, and breathe his new and old music. GUV III will not disappoint. Enjoy folks.
- Stephanie Harrold
Sam Jr.
Sam Jr. // Arts & Crafts
Despite this being the debut album of Sam Goldberg Jr., his influence in Canadian music has been apparent through his career over the last two decades. Appearing in the musical collective Broken Social Scene as well as a handful of obscure musical projects such as Bodega, whose debut album Goldberg describes as “...fucking great,”.
Sam has jumped into the depths of several genres, from indie-rock, shoegaze, punk and probably hip-hop at some point. Maybe. He received a Felix Prize nomination in 2014 for Producer of the Year. With such a backlog of projects it’s amazing to think that this is his first LP. But let me tell you this dear reader, it was well worth the wait.
Released March 10th, this seven track album is a powerful debut that features fuzzed out rhythm guitar, an overdriven bass, and a whole lot of wah-wah. It also incorporates flutes, bongos, and Sam’s nihilistic lyrics in a genre-salad that could be described using a handful of names. I like to go with “slacker rock world”.
With a history involving the creation of an unreleased album that Sam deemed undesirable before scrapping and starting from scratch, using what he didn’t like from his first attempt and going the opposite. With an intentional minimalist approach, this manages to keep a catchy structure to each song with sprinkles of experimentation. This is best seen in the fifth track “Quarter To Apocalypse”, which takes away the distortion and simply features thirty six seconds of a soft guitar riff accompanying the sounds of nature.
This is an extraordinary debut album that makes good for a variety of scenarios. It’s got the power and rhythm of workout music, it has the evolving nature for a visceral listening experience, and it has the simplicity for casual party music. It’s multi-faceted and versatile through Sam’s masterful craft. Just as Sam himself said of a previous project, this self-titled debut is fucking great.
- Brandon Kruze
