This is Lorelei – The Singer In My Band (Matador) (13th Floor Album Review)
This Is Lorelei does away with the bells, beeps and whistles on The Singer In My Band, crafting a bright, shimmering country-folk record without forsaking an iota of Nate Amos’ low-fi appeal.
The electronic textures and vocoders that featured prominently on Box For Buddy, Box for Star, have been eschewed in favour of a more rootsy approach on his impressive debut for Matador. The songwriting prowess and knack for earworms hinted at through the digital soundscapes of his breakout 2024 record, which often resembled video game music, is now laid bare through a set of baked-in-the-sun folk songs. The Singer Is My Band tips its hat to Amos’ family roots in bluegrass while evoking the warmth and haze of early New Riders of the Purple Sage and American Beauty era Grateful Dead.
In keeping with his prolific, DIY emergence on Bandcamp, Amos’ recorded the album in his Brooklyn apartment, with finishing touches added at his parents’ house in Vermont. He engineered, produced and performed everything on The Singer In My Band aside from the scorching banjo solo his father and acclaimed bluegrass musician Bob Amos played on the title track, and backing vocals from sister Sarah Amos and partner Al Nardo.
Though his eclectic early recordings ran the gauntlet from noise rock to electronica, Nate Amos has said all of his songs were devised as bluegrass arrangements that he would then bury in genre adornments. Paired with his blasé baritone, deadpan humour, conversational lyrics and giving-no-shits swagger, this sonic kitchen-sink approach has made for some cool tunes, but it could also drain some songs of humanity, leaving them cold, impassive and clinical – all words that bring his other band, Water From Your Eyes, to mind. Worse still, the playful subverting of genre conventions can suggest novelty – the sort of misperception that long dogged Ween, another band not afraid to leave listeners unsure if their intention was to mock or show deep affection (though I suspect it was always the latter).
Ween also comes to mind because they’re the only other band I could see writing the lyric “If the kid comes out, I’m kicking your crutch”. It’s from The Singer In My Band’s infectious second single Oh No Now My, the most “indie rock” sounding song on the record. Both this and the earlier single Billy Came Back give clear evidence of how a more simple and intimate approach can elevate Amos’ melodies. Throughout the record the clean, unadorned guitars and chord progressions are really expressive, both complimenting and cutting against Amos’ downcast lyrics and flat, casual delivery, which he gleefully pushes to the shaky limits of his vocal register. There is a deft balance of honesty and irony to these songs, though there is still a lot of oddball fun to be had. Lead-off track I Will Eat My Heart in the Morning Light dismisses the cliche subject matter and vocabulary of earnest folk songs with deadpan wit.
I’m not yearning for some kind of yonder
I’m not searching for gods in the sky
Cause love, I see those lights in front of me
And I’m not about to cry
It’s been like that since 1999
The song is a stunner and, crucially, when he laments “But lover, I’ve got troubles on my mind”, he seems to mean it. If Grateful Dead vibes aren’t whipping up a cosmic dust storm by the time the gorgeous Watching Heaven Fall breezes in, they’re sure to be searing into listeners’ brains on the jubilant title track. Though a distant relative of Friend of the Devil, it shares the same smile. But The Singer In My Band isn’t masquerading as a record from 1970, its undercurrent of electric guitar, that occasionally lashes into the spotlight, keeps it anchored to the now, while there are enough jangly tones to also teether it to the 1990s power pop of The Lemonheads, particularly on The Kid With the Crown, or even Fountains of Wayne.
Aside from the instant sugar hit of I’m All Fucked Up, I struggled to find a way into Box For Buddy, Box For Star until the deluxe edition was released with the re-recorded tracks featuring Waxahatchee, MJ Lenderman and Snail Mail and a more focused, less cluttered production.
Good songs were sharpened into brilliant ones. On The Singer In My Band, This Is Lorelei has right off the bat nailed arrangements that best serve his songwriting, and I can’t envision these songs being sung better or more engagingly by anyone but Amos.
Matthew Dallas
The Singer In My Band is out Sept 11 via Matador Records
This Is Lorelei – ‘The Kid With The Crown’ Official Video
This Is Lorelei
The Singer in My Band
Track List:
- I Will Eat My Heart in the Morning Light
- Oh No Now My
- Billy Came Back
- Watching Heaven Fall
- Sailing (Your Baby’s Down)
- The Singer in My Band
- Nitro
- Hey Sarah Is It Gonna Rain Forever
- The Kid With the Crown
- And I Haven’t Seen My Love in Quite a While
- Don’t You Cry in Lonesomeness
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