How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars - The Weather Station: Review
The Weather Station
is a Canadian indie folk project headed by singer-songwriter Tamara Lindeman. In 2021 the project released their breakout album Ignorance which became their most acclaimed and highest selling yet. How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars features songs that were conceptualized around the same time but shifts the instrumental palette to largely just Tamara's vocals and piano.
Review By Lav:
I wasn't really aware of The Weather Station until their breakout album last year. Tamara and company exist in an extremely saturated singer-songwriter genre that I tend to enjoy less than your average indie listener. That was the case last year when I had a pretty mild response to their record Ignorance, which numerous critics were quick to absolutely shell out praise for. Because of that this follow-up album wasn't even really on my radar for something that I could potentially really enjoy until hearing the lead single and reading about the records minimal sonic approach. Ultimately I'm glad those things made me check it out because I surprisingly enjoyed this record quite a bit and even more than their acclaimed project last year.
Endless Time was a great lead single that hooked me immediately and I still really enjoy it. It has that simple formula of vocals and piano at its core but manages to build on it in a really compelling and enjoyable way with dramatic rises at just the right moment. The song has been stuck in my head since I first heard it so it's clearly achieving a pretty catchy poise too. This records strengths and one weakness are extremely symbolic of the entire album. Tamara's vocals are wonderful throughout and while the piano is stark but repeatedly makes compelling rises at just the right moments. The biggest downside of the album is that for all the good songwriting done on these tracks almost all of them seem to end completely out of nowhere. This doesn't necessarily ruin any of these songs but once you notice it it gets harder to fully envelope yourself in the records gentle sway knowing that every song could cut off at any moment without warning.
Despite that consistent issue there are still some great highlights to be found. Marsh is the opening track and it's both a thematic and sonic tone setter for the entire record. The lyrics about getting away from some of the tribulations of modernism and finding relief in nature is wonderful escapism. It sets up the albums themes of hesitation for the future masked by beautiful sounds and imagery. Taught is a great example of this effectively evoking that naturalistic energy with a subtle and beautiful instrumental bridge on the back end. The whole track is made more impactful by just how sparse and spacious the instrumental is.
Ignorance was intended to be the title track to the bands previous record but it ends up here. I'm not sure why it didn't make the cut then but if I was guessing I'd say it's because this format of isolated piano is right where it belongs. In fact this is one of the piano highlights of the record delivering another compelling build punctuated by a great performance. Stare is also a big highlight and early on it contains one of the most singularly beautiful moments on the record when Tamara sings about falling in love with the beauty of the sky before the instrumental just empties out completely. The silence that follows such a genuinely impassioned moment has been something I've thought about a lot since I first heard it.
The second half of the record isn't quite as strong as the first half but it does have a few highlights. The closer Loving You feels like an appropriate conclusion with one of the more substantial interpolations of extra instrumentation. Even though the themes of this record are more general this song also does a good job at tying up some of the hesitation wrapped in acknowledgment of beauty. Even though the song is just called Song I also think it's a pretty good moment. It's the shortest track on the record but it actually packs quite a bit into that two minutes to support the swaying little key phrases. This is probably the worst example of a song ending out of nowhere, though I still enjoy it while it's on.
To Talk About was the second single from the record and though it's technically a duet with Ryan Driver the crossover their voices have is pretty slim. It does hold firm with the charming aesthetic of these other songs but I don't like the refrains here nearly as much and the harmonizing on the songs climax falls pretty short of being cathartic. Sway probably has the biggest mix on the record purely in terms of what is put on display instrumentally. While it does sort of sway I would say a more fitting title would be Drive because this song heads straight in the direction of a crescendo both thematically and instrumentally. Ultimately I think it's fine but it doesn't really stand out as one of the better songs here.
Generally I like the lyricism on this record even though it's occasionally very metaphorical and abstract. Sleight Of Hand is the one exception because it is filled with playing card similes and they get pretty taxing and even cringey. When a song goes make or break on the lyricism and piano like so many of these tracks do sometimes a difficult series of lyrics tend to bring it down and this makes it probably my least favorite song on the album.
I liked Stars quite a bit and I suspect I'll be in the minority of fans who like this even more than Ignorance. Maybe it's just because I had heard so many different records just like Ignorance before and this one stands out more to me but I honestly think the songwriting here has improved quite a bit and that the extremely minimal presentation suits Tamara much better. I'm well aware that staking this claim will be like trying to tell people Amnesiac is better than Kid A but that's honestly how I feel and this record has me much more likely to look forward to more music from Tamara than her previous one did. Not to mention this could end up being one of my favorite indie folk records of the year when all is said and done. 7.5/10
This is a plain cover and it feels a little dated. It's like something you would have seen circa 2005. I like the composition and the colors but the darkness could be lifted a little bit so you can take in more details. She is lit really well to match the scene. The lack of branding is really evident because of the large blank space on the right side. Overall it's okay but could be much better. 4.5/10
