This Is Lorelei drops new album ‘The Singer in My Band’
The solo project of Water From Your Eyes’ Nate Amos is back with an irresistible and addictive collection of songs.
★★★★★
Photo: Eve Alpert
After the rousing success of Box for Buddy, Box for Star, it felt like everyone was waiting for what This Is Lorelei would do next. After a couple of deluxe reissues of the aforementioned album, complete with an entire LP of cover versions from the hottest indie stars around, it was announced that the band would be signing to Matador for their upcoming album. Anticipation was high. That much hype and expectation can kill a record stone dead, but The Singer in My Band smashes through all of those expectations with ease. Listening to it is just a joyous experience.
Musically, the album is a bit of a departure from the electronic, effect-laden sound of Box for Buddy, Box for Star. It is primarily acoustic driven and the arrangements are far more unvarnished and natural sounding. It isn’t more intimate, Nate Amos’ songwriting is still direct and hooky, but it certainly feels like the cloak of experimental production has been lifted off to reveal the songs underneath in their purest forms. It sounds like the perfect progression from MJ Lenderman’s acclaimed country style cover of Amos’ Dancing In The Club from last year. It’s a display of incredible confidence and faith to present these songs in their purest and most natural form.
That confidence pays off immediately with the album’s opener I Will Eat My Heart in the Morning Light. It doesn’t come storming out of the gates. It doesn’t need to. Instead, it is breezy, jaunty and relaxing. Like all of the other songs that follow, its cheerful melody gets stuck inside your head right from the get-go. The album’s lead singles Oh No Now My and Billy Came Back follow with their big choruses and soaring vocals. Billy Came Back pulls in the cosmic country sounds that are reminiscent of the late great Gram Parsons. As with the rest of the record, the arrangement lets the song breathe, it’s airtight and when the backing vocals arrive in the chorus the song really rises. It’s a small moment but one that might have gotten lost on previous denser, more frantic This Is Lorelei albums.
Watching Heaven Fall is where the party really starts though. This song isn’t country influenced or alt-country. It is straight up, plain old, traditional bluegrass music. Amos isn’t trying to add an edge to the genre or to mix it with anything else. He is writing the same kind of songs he always has. He’s just presenting them a bit differently and having tons of fun in the process. The title track follows this same pattern with its dynamite banjos and circular melodies. It feels like the real heart of the album and to say it’s addictive would be an understatement. Every time I hear it, I just have to attack the repeat button and hear it again. You won’t be able to control your hands and you certainly won’t be able to control your brain from spinning the refrain “please give my eyes like these to Genevieve” around in your head over and over again. It will drive you punch drunk crazy. It is two minutes of pure, heavenly joy.
After all that bluegrass, the album takes a little left turn with the acoustic guitar based instrumental Nitro. Upon hearing this, I had to do a double take to make sure I wasn’t listening to Richard Thompson. It is a dazzling display of folky guitar virtuosity and segues perfectly into the next track, Hey Sarah Is It Gonna Rain Forever that pairs that folk influence with Amos’ Pavement-inspired casually infectious vocal melodies. As we get towards the end of the album, The Kid With the Crown explodes through the speakers with its big crashing drums and wailing guitars. It’s probably the closest Amos gets to the sound of his rocking touring live band on the entire record and perfectly sets us up for the album’s final couple of songs. And I Haven’t Seen My Love in Quite a While is the penultimate track but really does feel like the album’s spiritual ending. It’s another delightful bluegrass song and leans perfectly into Don’t You Cry in Lonesomeness which feels like an epilogue to close out the album on an understated and hopeful note.
In case you needed any more convincing, Nate Amos has everything in his locker. He’s a master of the craft. We already knew that he was capable of making experimental albums full of direct and catchy songs. On The Singer in My Band, he’s proving that he can abscond the effects and that he doesn’t need to take left turns or twist his songs around to make them engaging, infectious and interesting. He has long had nothing to prove but The Singer In My Band proves, yet again, that Amos is one of this generation’s finest songwriters. I’m off to play it all over again. I have a feeling you might be doing the same.
The Singer in My Band is out now via Matador Records.
