“Meet me in between
the cities we grew up in
the places we have loved”

So opens the first part of a new double-header release from Anchorage-based songwriter The Washboard Abs, who we first featured when covering his great release WHATEVERLAND put out by our buds at Z Tapes. These six new songs, spaced over two releases (the beaming & the beaming pt. 2), are a welcome addition to his catalogue of gentle and reflective bedroom pop. The rest of first track ‘dust’ is just lovely, with gentle poetic lines such as:

“Take me far away
to forests with no ceiling
to bridges made of sand.
By the time that we awake
our legs have turned to cedars
we won’t need them to stand”

‘ghosts’ sounds a shade darker somehow, still delicate and sad but bruised purple and green rather than the cool blue-grey of the opener, and the lyrics have a lovely flowing melody that washes through the song (walking alone through the dark / i feel your weight, i see a spark / but i don’t miss you anymore”). ‘fall’ sounds kind of like a stripped down JBM, which is high praise indeed.

“Go to sleep
dream of me
and I will try to do the same”

pt. 2 begins with a cover of Mount Eerie’s ‘Goodbye Hope’ which (thankfully) remains pretty faithful to the original. ‘fall two’ has a blustery autumnal feel, while ‘ladder’ is pretty and gentle and incredibly sad, detailing those quiet moments of remembrance after the death of a loved one.

“and I wanted you to know
that every time it snows
the frost
spells out
your name”

Both releases are really, really good, I can’t recommend them highly enough. My only complaint is that the whole thing is infuriatingly brief. We want more more more! Get the beaming and the beaming pt. 2 on a name-your-price download via The Washboard Abs Bandcamp page.

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