RIYL: Sharon Van Etten, Big Thief
Label: Mexican Summer
I won’t lie I’m a newbie to the CATE le BON experience here. So i mean WTF do i know. I mean it’s been like 10 years of her making music and here i come in after listening to 3 singles and try to tell you about the music, so lame. It’s really an injustice in general. So with that disclaimer / self-flogging accomplished I’ll try my best here.
I ran across the new single Daylight Matters a few months back, it just kinda saunters in without much fanfare but it really sticks with you. With the hot weather rolling in the chill delivery of the track really puts it high on my list of singles from this year I’m returning to. 2 more singles have since dropped and they all continue to be great. So I found my way around to needing to pre-order a copy of this myself. I’m really excited to start going through back catalog now, but I think you guys should check this release out, it looks to be a real solid release.
The Details
It was on a mountainside in Cumbria that the first whispers of Cate Le Bonâs fifth studio album poked their buds above the earth. âThereâs a strange romanticism to going a little bit crazy and playing the piano to yourself and singing into the night,â she says, recounting the year living solitarily in the Lake District which gave way to Reward. By day, ever the polymath, Le Bon painstakingly learnt to make solid wood tables, stools and chairs from scratch; by night she looked to a second-hand Meers â the first piano she had ever owned â for company, âwindows closed to absolutely everyoneâ, and accidentally poured her heart out. The result is an album every bit as stylistically varied, surrealistically-inclined and tactile as those in the enduring outsiderâs back catalogue, but one that is also intensely introspective and profound; her most personal to date.
This sense of privacy maintained throughout is helped by the various landscapes within which Reward took shape: Stinson Beach, LA, and Brooklyn via Cardiff and The Lakes. Recording at Panoramic House [Stinson Beach, CA], a residential studio on a mountain overlooking the ocean, afforded Le Bon the ability to preserve the remoteness she had captured during the writing of Reward in Staveley, Lake District.
Over this extended period a cast of trusted and loved musicians joined Le Bon, Khouja and fellow co-producer Josiah Steinbrick â Stella Mozgawa (of Warpaint) on drums and percussion; Stephen Black (aka Sweet Baboo) on bass and saxophone and longtime collaborators Huw Evans (aka H.Hawkline) and Josh Klinghoffer on guitars â and were added to the album, âone by one, one on oneâ. The fact that these collaborators have appeared variously on Le Bonâs previous outputs no doubt goes some way to aid the preservation of a signature sound despite a relatively drastic change in approach.
Be it on her more minimalist, acoustic-leaning 2009 debut album Me Oh My or critically acclaimed, liquid-riffed 2013 LP Mug Museum as well as 2016s Crab Day, Cate Le Bonâs solo work â and indeed also her production work, such as that carried out on recent Deerhunter album Why Hasnât Everything Already Disappeared? (4AD, January 2019) â has always resisted pigeonholing, walking the tightrope between krautrock aloofness and heartbreaking tenderness; deadpan served with a twinkle in the eye, a flick of the fringe and a lick of the Telecaster.
The multifaceted nature of Le Bonâs art â its ability to take on multiple meanings and hold motivations which are not immediately obvious â is evident right down to the albumâs very name. âPeople hear the word ârewardâ and they think that itâs a positive wordâ says Le Bon, âand to me itâs quite a sinister word in that it depends on the relationship between the giver and the receiver. I feel like itâs really indicative of the times weâre living in where words are used as slogans, and everything is slowly losing its meaning.â The record, then, signals a scrambling to hold onto meaning; it is a warning against lazy comparisons and face values. It is a sentiment nicely summed up by the furniture-making musician as she advises: âAlways keep your hand behind the chisel.â
Price $19
- Buying!
- Maybe Buy
- Not My Style
- Too Expensive