Ignorance

On Loyalty and The Weather Station, Tamara Lindemans music evolved by leaps and bounds. On Ignorance, she reaches another peak. When the Weather Stations tour for their 2017 self-titled album ended, she spent months researching the enormous impact of climate change. She attended demonstrations and hosted a series of discussions with other musicians and activists, but Lindeman had to explore the issue -- and peoples resistance to addressing it -- in her music. Shes just as insightful singing about what she calls climate grief on Ignorance as she is when describing the heartache between people. The breezy Atlantic nails the feeling of helplessness in the face of looming disaster: I should get all this dying off my mind/I should really know better than to read the headlines. As she challenges complacency and fear, Lindeman gets out of her own comfort zone with Ignorances music. Instead of the acoustic backdrops of her early releases or the rock flourishes of The Weather Station, this time Lindeman drapes her uncomfortable truths in downright luxurious sounds. Combining the silkiness of late-70s/early-80s Roxy Music and Fleetwood Mac with the exploratory spirit of jazz, Ignorances sophistication feels conspicuous but also precious, as though shes buffed her nuggets of truth to a mirrorlike sheen. Though shes previously shied away from theatricality, theres no denying how powerfully she uses it on the albums opening track, Robber. Over slinky yet uneasy synths and strings, Lindeman meditates on how the privileged steal resources in a croon embodying the seductiveness of the status quo. The silvery highs of Lindemans voice still resemble Joni Mitchell, as do the cleverly captured details of Ignorances lyrics. Theres even a song called Parking Lot that shares the exuberant poignancy of Mitchells Big Yellow Taxi, though Lindeman sets her contemplation of the world around her (You know it just kills me when I see some bird fly/It just kills me/And I dont know why) to perky disco strings. She brilliantly uses pops familiar structures and steady tempos to underscore the albums feeling of disconnection, whether she emphasizes the loneliness on Loss with mantra-like repetition or magnifies the tiny cuts on Separated into chasms with crisp verses and choruses. Lindemans words and music may dazzle, but shes always compassionate as she examines the warning signs in a relationship with a person or a planet. On the tender, percolating standout Heart, she sings, I am soft/But I am also angry, which could be Ignorances mission statement. Her matter-of-fact delivery only enhances the complexity of romantic postmortems like Subdivisions, which closes the album with a weary, late-winter glow and plenty of ambivalence. Musically and emotionally, theres so much going on that its sometimes hard to keep up, but Ignorance is a major statement that never feels oversimplified. While shes growing so much with each album that it seems risky to call this Lindemans best, its safe to say this is another outstanding achievement from the Weather Station. ~ Heather Phares

俳優としても活動するカナダ出身のTamara Lindemanのソロプロジェクト=The Weather Stationの最新作は臨場感溢れるフォーク・アルバムだ。Arcade FireやThe Nationalのプロデュースを手掛けたことのあるMarcus Paquinを迎え、更に音の幅を広げている。Joni Mitchellからの影響を感じるアーティスティックな気品あるアルトヴォイスと、クラシカルで耳馴染みの良いサウンドに大胆なストリングスを巧みに加えたサウンドが堪らない。また曲の後半に高まるダイナミズムと、仄かに漂うジャズのエッセンスに酔いしれる。まるで一本の映画を見ているかのように展開し、今年のフォーク・シーンの中でも好評を博す1枚になるだろう。
intoxicate (C)石田真生