The Weather Station - Humanhood
On her latest studio album, Tamara Lindeman explores new musical landscapes and finds humanity in loneliness. It is one of her most striking records yet.
In 2021, The Weather Station took the critics' hearts with their highly acclaimed album Ignorance. It was a beautiful record, which helped to find solitude after the COVID-19 pandemic. Later next year, they released one more record How Is That I Should Look At The Stars. It was still a pleasant longplay, an ideological continuation of Ignorance, but something didn’t feel that right at that moment. It took 3 years for Lindeman to figure out what she is going to do next, and, instead of focusing on global issues, she decided to turn back and explore her own emotions and feelings.
Humanhood starts out strong, with a song “Neon Signs”, which fits perfectly for a lead single. It is a perfect art pop song: combining influences from Joni Mitchell’s best folk works with smooth, jazzy instrumentals, Lindeman sings about breach of trust, but instead of causing anxiety, this song envelops the listener in warmth and captures their attention with a hypnotic instrumental. She brings up this topic once again on “Irreversible Damage”, a hidden jam closer to an end of an album, which spoken-word delivery remind of Cassandra Jenkins’ 2021 masterpiece Hard Drive – both of these songs’ narration captures your attention and you, physically and mentally, just cannot focus on anything else during these 6 minutes.
She does this trick once again on a “Mirror”, a song that you could probably hear in an indie playlist on your streaming platform. It opens up with some disquieting questions: What this dirty old thing? Can't you see that it’s broken?, leaving you with desires to self-reflect and explore your inner conflicts. It's a war of attrition, but you can still win. The most touching and profound track on Humanhood is its closer, “Sewing”. There, Tamara Lindeman reflects on the process of repairing herself, both physically and emotionally. Sure, the topic of uniting the disparate parts of a person’s personality is not that new, but her astonishing songwriting and memorizing vocal delivery this time hit different.
The most important part of the record, however, is its sound. It is not a regular folk record, and it doesn’t try to be one. Lindeman with her group explore a wide, striking palette of genres. They intertwine the familiar singer-songwriter sound with jazz, rock, and sometimes sophisti-pop elements, creating a unique listening experience. “Humanhood”, the title track of the album, might be the most diverse song on the longplay sonically - after all, if by this point the album hasn't surprised you yet, the saxophone and banjo will definitely not leave you cool. There are also some instrumental interludes here – but they never feel unnecessary. Furthermore, they often seem as a transition point, dividing the album into logical parts and giving you some time and space to reflect on what you have just heard.
This is an album full of beauty, air, space, and self-discovery. On Humannood, Tamara Lindeman once again proves her distinctive talent for songwriting and an ability to touch the soul of the listener. You see a reflection of your own experiences in the artist’s pain and find out one thing: your mirror might be dirty, but you can’t break it.
8.2/10