Recorded with Afie Jurvanen (AKA Bahamas), the album expands upon her previous releases by adding a lush sense of precision and confidence. Here Lindeman’s writing is careful and lucid and wise, humble and shrewd in a manner normally reserved for those who have seen many years, been through many troubles. The result is an album warm and clever and clear, an album to turn to. Take opening track ‘Way It Is, Way It Could Be’ as an example

You looked small in your coat, one hand up on the window,
so long now you’d been lost in thought.
No snow on the road – we’d been lucky,
and it looked like we would be well past Orléans
and past Montmagny, the road giving way to river
the frozen Saint Lawrence white and blue.
We went out on the ice, and I turned back to you, a figure
distant and small in the long view.

Was it a look in your eye? I wasn’t sure.
The way it is and the way it could be – both are.
We got back in the car.

RIYL: folk, Field Report, Joni Mitchell

Favourite songs:

You can buy Loyalty now from The Weather Station’s Bandcamp page (or the Paradise of Bachelors Bandcamp page for those of us outside of Canada).

P.S. Lindeman is currently toruing the UK and Europe with The Mountain Goats (!). Check out the dates below and good luck getting a ticket:

Nov 12 – Leeds (UK), Brudenell Social Club
Nov 13 – Glasgow (UK), Art School
Nov 14 – Dublin (IE), Whelans
Nov 15 – Manchester (UK), Gorilla
Nov 17 – Bristol (UK), Trinity
Nov 18 – Brighton (UK), Komedia
Nov 19 – London (UK), O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
Nov 20 – Brussels (BE), Autumn Falls Festival @ Botanique
Nov 21 – Utrecht (NL), Le Guess Who Festival
Nov 22 – Amsterdam (NL) Paradiso Noord Tolhuistuin

The post Flash Review: The Weather Station – Loyalty appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Opener ‘I Don’t Know’ is a perfect introduction to the album, a soothing yet energetic brand of folk which acknowledges doubt yet refuses to submit to it, playing like a perfect antidote to a bad day:

“Oh the wane can beat you down and bind you
Leave you blind to the thought
that things could ever look as bright again.
Oh but things will pick up again
I just cant tell you when
but things will pick up again soon.”

The writing is sharp and often beautiful, much of it based on past comfort and present uncertainty. ‘Upside Down Clouds’, with it’s moodier guitars and dramatic vocals, is a good example, as Refsnes pines for the simplicity and familiarity of the Florø coast (“It feels as though the shore that I know is no longer there”). ‘Alaska’ explores the double bind of being an artist, the urge to “show them some more of yourself” but all the while wanting to hide away, in this case through escape to the natural peace of the titular location: “I’ve heard that it’s so quiet there that not even the wind will talk to you”. As with any folk record, heartbreak pays a visit, with ‘Song About Trust’ detailing the disintegration of a relationship in viscerally outspoken tones (“This song’s about trust and how we must talk to our demons like strangers”), while ‘Put It Away’ stems from the doubt of past pain (“I don’t keep secrets anymore as I’ve been made to tell”) and develops into a plea with herself:

“Just don’t break my heart because I can’t break yours.
There’s a city that hold me for dead
and the voice that goes on in my head
saying you’re such a cheat your too easy to beat
put your heart away.”

The influences here are numerous and varied, knitting together to create something fresh and new. Joni Mitchell is an obvious one, but there are shades of Natalie Prass and Laura Marling and Joanna Newsom too, as well as the variation across tracks. ‘Spoilt Rotten Blues’ is a laid back country song, like some long-lost collaboration between Samantha Crain, First Aid Kit and Feist, ‘City City’ and ‘Song About Trust ‘ are slow ballads reminiscent of Sharon van Etten and ‘A Million Things’ is a gentle, evocative strum akin to something from Laura Gibson. While the style changes slightly across the record, the general ambience remains true throughout (a mood captured in the imagery of the ‘I Don’t Know’ video), giving a great sense of cohesiveness and allowing sensations and themes to develop without explicit reinforcement.

No One Knows That You’re Lost is an album inspired by the Norwegian coast and a human interior, by tight itching doubts and wide open spaces. Here, fragility, strength and beauty become one and the same, parts of a landscape in constant flux yet remaining fundamentally unchanged. Basically, it’s the sort of album we are honoured to première. Have a listen to the full album below:

No One Knows That You’re Lost is out today on Vestkyst Records, and you can buy it from all the usual places.

The post Album Première: Tina Refsnes – No One Knows That You’re Lost appeared first on Various Small Flames.