We’ve been fans of Nathan Amundson’s Rivulets for a long time, last waxing lyrical back in 2014 when we reviewed his album I Remember Everything. It was an album that combined slowcore (a la Low and Red House Painters) with a more electrified rock, achieving a balance between stirring and sincere that is very hard to come by. Almost exactly four years later Amundson is back with a brand new album, In Our Circle, and we’re pleased to say he has lost none of these talents.
Opening track ‘Everything Goes’ plunges us back into the characteristic Rivulets atmosphere, melancholy infused with a sense of patience, pocked with enough space to allow rumination. Listening feels like floating in a calm ocean bay at midnight, silent save for the hum of other people’s distant lives and the city lights spangling on the water around you.
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=2576654394 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=757355686]
Built upon on a foundation of snarling guitar, ‘Not Today’ finds Amundson delivering punchy lines in crests of cymbal-heavy crescendo, while ‘Because I Don’t Care’ strips right back into something of a ballad. Emotion is apparent, the immediacy clear in the way Amundson’s vocals strain and drift with regret, lamenting the fact he is destined to hurt even the people he cares about most.
“At times the night it gets so dark
And I wonder where you are
You said take me away from here
You said take me away from hereBecause I don’t care
I hurt the ones
I’ll hurt you too
It’s what I do”
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=2576654394 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=209615738]
There’s a lovely Mazzy Star vibe on ‘Dark Days’ a short and simple track that shifts and sways with a a woozy tenderness, while ‘I Was Lost Before I Met You’ brings to mind Sun Kil Moon with its restrained electric guitar and honest writing (“I was lost before I met you, I was lost, I was in the dark”). Both ‘Sirens’ and ‘You Can Never Come back’ feel more like nods to Jason Molina, a slow-burning sense of doom blooming across the tracks, guitars stinging down like lightning bolts around Amundson’s vocals and the thump of percussion.
‘24’ is something of a change of pace, a lonely acoustic folk song that feels like a late-night whisper compared to the rest of the record. Gone are the electric guitars, the grand percussion, leaving only Amundson’s quiet voice and a sense of stark sentiment. Behind this sits the subtle hiss of ambient noise, a sound barely there yet always there, solitude so keen it vibrates the air around you.
Returning to a richer sound, closer ‘Lucky’ is a love song, although not one of the gooey, sickly variety. Rather, this is a connection hard won, tested by forces both exterior and personal and still refusing to break. The emotion then is not one of heart-melting or head-spinning but a calm disbelief, an assurance not in the ability of another to change your life in epiphanic flashes, but rather the enriching nature of perseverance and generosity.
“We’ve been around
We’ve seen our ups and downs
And I’m thankful
You still put up with me”
In Our Circle is out now and you can get it via Talitres.
