ALBUM: The Weather Station 'Loyalty'

Rating:

In their third album, The Weather Station – musical vehicle for songwriter extraordinaire Tamara Lindeman – present an unconventional folk masterpiece, which speaks of convoluted conceptions of trust and deceit in the human experience. Loyalty is a storybook style account of an emotional journey through the human experience, with each song representing a chapter in that tale.

The Weather Station’s gentle folk sound, combined with Lindeman’s drawling yet sweet voice, create a refined and otherworldly sound that is as intriguing as it is intoxicating. The lyrical style is unstructured; choruses and verses are replaced with a melodic stream of human conscience. The songs themselves are often musically simplistic, with a strong focus on mood and lyrics.

Lindeman’s writing is an exploration of her personal emotions and she externalizes them through empirical observations of the world around her. The track ‘Floodplain’ speaks of driving across the countryside whilst considering love and loss, the music building into an uplifting and honest reflection. Similarly, ‘I Could Only Stand By’ is thick with fictional imagery which, combined with the morose sound and nostalgic tone, creates a bitter-sweet reflection on love.

Whilst also being vague, the album also zooms in on specific moment in the course of somebodies life, in title track ‘Loyalty’ and ‘Tapes’. The lyrics of the former focus in on a phone call with an ex-lover, whilst the latter describes an emotional reaction to finding a lover’s old tapes. Though with different sounds, lyrically they take the same approach of detailed observation.

This album contains both upbeat positivity and downbeat thoughtfulness, encompassing a range of emotions. Songs like ‘I Mined’ and ‘At Full Height’ speak of hope and positivity whilst ‘Like Sisters’ and ‘Shy Women’ are melancholy and nostalgic. Indeed, within these songs her subject matter ranges from relationships to friendship and personal discovery, truly encapsulating a personal journey.

Though this album is beautiful and moving, it is often highly cerebral and would hardly be effective as background music. Its poetic lyrics make it more literary than musical at times, but this does not change the fact that The Weather Station has a refined, simplistic and moving style of folk that is gorgeous to listen to.

Loyalty is out now via Paradise Of Bachelors.