The Weather Station (Tamara Lindeman)

I don't know much about this band/artist, but Loyalty (2015) is a miracle of a record - I must have listened to it a hundred times. Comparisons to Bill Callahan and Joni Mitchell have been made. Suggestions for similar bands are v welcome but I'm also OK with this being fairly unique.

First track off Loyalty is called "Way It Is, Way It Could Be":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGcYb6O5ItQ

New single sounds great, slightly new direction and the forthcoming album is s/t so should be interesting

https://youtu.be/D3F3DsXLSaw

still going strong
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liDW1ZIrP6g

New s/t album. Sounds very interesting, there are definitely joni mitchell vibes. She also has that crystal clear voice i cannot not listen to. The lyrics seem to be quite elaborate too.
http://www.npr.org/2017/09/28/552693955/first-listen-the-weather-station-the-weather-station

great!

there's a good interview at
http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2017/09/25/the-weather-station-the-aquarium-drunkard-interview/

Was a little lukewarm on the last record -- this one sounds like a step up. Joni vibes still very much there but a little more assured this time. Some nice string arrangements too.

I am really falling in love with the album. Somehow her voice reminds me strongly of someone else's. But I don't know who it is. Especially when she whispers. It has got that folk rock tinge. It is not Sandy Denny though.

joni mitchell?

also, at times, laura marling and angel olsen

Whoah, I just heard this for the first time. Fantastic record!!

indeed!

Thirty is a great song, too

she sounds more asserted and direct on the new album, it's a lot rockier too, an interesting evolution from Loyalty, perhaps even, as many reviews have suggested, a more fully realized version of the Weather Station

and yet I have to admit that atm I prefer Loyalty, which to me is a masterpiece of understatement

on another note, I think new album opener "Free" is the first song I've heard to contain the word "adamant", beautifully sung

Love this record.

wow this is amazing

great album

getting pretty obsessed with this band

I hear they are very good live too, really hope to catch them on their next European tour

I'm noticing the lyrics more on s/t than Loyalty and there is no doubt she is a strong writer

I believe Loyalty is one of the most beautiful records ever made

It really is. This story and performance added a whole other dimension to it for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSwxbstOWnQ

Wow, that is powerful... made my eyes tear up a bit.

I wanted permission, I wanted expedition, I wanted to have weight to throw around—for you to look up when I found something so beautiful, and I could tell you somehow. I’d never have to shout, you would listen to my know-how, all the love our love allows. I felt so clumsy and plain; I was filled with so much shame, just trying to say to say to say to say, to call out anything by name. Every line felt lifted, every smooth stone was pitted by the wind and rain that hit it, and I never could forget it like you forgot it. I wanted to set it all down so it would open to you like a flower; yes, I wanted power.

I just lose it at this bit - so, so beautiful. Thank you to everyone who voted for this in the 77 because this just destroys me <3

that story is very powerful

I liked this album a lot at first and it's only grown on me, she's as good a songwriter as anyone operating right now

i was just googling about weather station and i had no idea she was an accomplished actress under the name tamara hope (?!)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamara_Hope

seeing her live next week and I am v. excited!

New song! The Robber

Musically, on this song I think I was swimming around in some swamp between the circular rhythms of Ethiopian jazz, the muscular qualities of new wave, the jazz influence of my local music scene in Toronto, and the beautiful gentleness and questioning of Talk Talk records.

Delish

did the bio on this, it's amazing

holy moly, I hope there's an album on the way as inspired!

that new song is phantastic. getting very strong talk talk vibes from it.

oh she even said it, how honest!

Yeah this is great, album soon please.

Fantastic track. Loved her past albums but this is a huge leap upwards.

Picking up some mid-90s Laurie Anderson vibes on "Robber" this song

woops...really gotta proof before i post

This should be Exactly My Thing, but it feels a little too on the nose somehow? I'll give it another shot.

I just listened - first time hearing this band and I'm in love.
Gonna give the self-titled a spin tomorrow.

love this but of course i'd love this sort of talk talk-adjacent sophisti-pop stuff

Loyalty remains my favorite - one of my all time favorite albums, desert island stuff - but very curious about the new one

Something Sandro Perri about it too.

Read about this on another thread, and wondering how she managed to pass me by!

So after listening to The Robber, I went back and listened to the previous two albums, and getting kind of a Julia Holter vibe from them - the combination of folk-rock plus jazzy bits plus those unexpected modern-classical string arrangements bringing out unexpected twists?

Also got an intensely familiar vibe from her voice, like a sense of "I know her...?" (Does she remind me of Holter, or Glasser? Or someone else?) But also think that she taps into a certain style of North American White Girl Pretty-Voice which *feels* achingly familiar, becuase it is definitely a quality of voice which signifies something - but it's that quality of vocal tone which feels familiar, rather than her actual singing voice?

Her voice doesn't sound much like either to me - I only really know the S/T but I have absolutely hammered it over the years, as with Julia Holter actually. Her voice is fuller and richer than Holter's and they're coming from different place I think (modern classical/chamber pop vs rich girl indie-folk).

I dunno, is Joni Mitchell too obvious a reference point? Laura Marling?

Also I'm listening to Loyalty now and feeling like a dick for not doing so years ago.

First listen and her voice in places has got a deep velvety but slightly husky quality that makes me think of Tanita Tikaram

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdEI775vfnI

heard this live version on a comp a year or two ago, hadn't realized there was a video. sometimes her vocal phrasing reminds me of paul simon in a good way.

"thirty" is such an amazing song

Tamara feels to me like the refinement and distillation of a handful of threads of Canadian music-- Siberry, The Hip, Gordon Lightfoot in particular. Most importantly, though, is the intangible "wrecking crew" of musicians/producers/engineers in Toronto and Montreal (in particular)-- more of a "wrecking cloud", I guess-- a larger collective of extremely capable individuals, many of whom are prominently featured in The Weather Station's recordings. You'll find a lot of the same musicians on this record are also featured, say, on Lido Pimienta's recent Tiny Desk, or my own production work; we're really having a moment up here imo!

It's nice to see Will Kidman (of Constantines, Woolly Leaves) on guitar in that video of "Thirty"; he is playing drums in the video for "Robber", too

finally checked out "robbers" def hear the ricki lee jones pirates era in it

re that cloud, two drummers on <I>Ignorance</i> (neither is kidman) - one of them is Phil Melanson, who is all over (for example) the new Sam Gendel record

and then there are contributions from toronto's jazz/ratdrifting crew, like Ryan Driver and Christine Bougie

Oh no, I didn't state that Kidman was on the track itself (I don't know, one way or another), just in the video-- as is Johnny Spence! as an actor. The other drummer is Kieran Adams, and, well, where to start? https://www.discogs.com/artist/1345463-Kieran-Adams

yeah i didn't mean to correct you, o! obviously you know all this stuff. :) just bringing it to other people's interest/attention

New song. Album Ignorance to be released in February.

https://theweatherstation.bandcamp.com/album/ignorance

"tried to tell you" is also excellent, really looking forward to this album

Ta, Willem. Another top knotch single, likewise can't wait for this to drop!

Good groove, looking forward to the album!

Thanks Willem, great. All she touches becomes gold...

was hoping Subdivisions would be a cover of the Rush song but looks like no

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_BRoP1yqjo

this album is going to be fantastic

all three songs so far have really hit it out of the park

finally got the s/t on vinyl after listening to it so much on streaming, still a great record sounds beautiful on vinyl

Climate Change Is Worsening. So the Weather Station Is Singing About It.

Some musicians are compelled to write a song after a lovers’ quarrel, an encounter with a great work of art or a particularly resonant overheard exchange. Tamara Lindeman, the 36-year-old Canadian singer and songwriter who records under the name the Weather Station, was recently driven to write one immediately after reading an article about the oil and gas corporation Exxon Mobil.

Goin' Mobil

album is quite good, maybe not as overwhelmingly great as the singles were but i'm still very impressed

the orchestration + motorik rhythms reminds me a lot of some tracks owen pallett's heartland which is always delightful to be reminded of (i realise they did some of the string arrangements here too)

There's an extended family of musicians that have been cross-pollinating everything up here, I call it "The Wrecking Cloud". Extends from Toronto to Montreal, touches every album from Lido to Andy Shauf to Martha and on and on

Oh ya I said this already a few months ago lol

Ha, O! The Wrecking Cloud is hilariously apt.

I'd especially recommend to anyone into Tamara who hasn't heard Bernice yet that they check that project out, too: https://bernice.bandcamp.com/album/eau-de-bonjourno

Whereas Tamara's prob closer in sound/spirit to Jennifer Castle, and Robin Dann/Bernice works more with an electronic R&B palate closer to DIANA in terms of fellow Torontonians, these are all interrelated pockets of music activity that I've been especially excited by over the last decade+ via being both friends and fans of these people via venue-hangouts like the Tranzac and the now-defunct Holy Oak.

Two other more jazz-adjacent local labels with ties to Tamara would be the late CD label Rat-drifting (via Ryan Driver, an incredible keyboard player and warbly balladeer) and the still-running CD label All Set! Editions (via Mike Smith, a brilliant bassist and between-genres composer who is also often hired to arrange strings for folks like Tamara and Jennifer).

There's also Matt "Prince Nifty" Smith, who has been in a long-standing trio with 0P above and now co-produces Lido P.: https://princenifty.bandcamp.com/album/were-not-in-kansas-anymore
and Brodie West, who plays sax on "Robber" and leads a great tropical/Ethio jazz band called Eucalyptus (which Mike S. and R. Driver are in, incidentally): https://brodiewest.bandcamp.com/album/kick-it-till-you-flip-it

Forgive the cloudiness of my rambling scene report

The Wrecking Cloud aesthetic got applied to tMG's album from 2019, too-- Thom Gill, Johnny Spence and Bram Gielen were all brought in to hit some home runs. Bram was hired back for "Getting Into Knives". All these people are so heavy

Totally--I'd also shine a light on Felicity Williams as a semi-secret-weapon vocal ninja, maybe most heard outside T.O. circles for her work in the Bahamas band (along with Christine Bougie, another wizard session player who plays aux guitar w/ Afie J and is likewise part of this forthcoming Weather Station album that I'll clunkily tie it all back to)

shoutout joseph shabason

phil melanson (Wreicking Cloud member) also appears on the new Sam Gendel (west coast US saxophone)

For sure--Philadelphia and Satin Doll were both 2020 standout releases IMO

P4K IG Live-from-home concert tonight at 6pm:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CK1gPMCFf3s/

best new music on pitchfork!

i was wondering, seemed like they'd been investing in weather station a bit in the run-up

lmao this is such ILM catnip

it's nice but feels a bit too polite/anaesthetized or something for my liking

it falls off for me a little bit in the second half which is generally slower and less propulsive

i have had the chorus of "tried to tell you" in my head for months now though, i love that little keyboard lick

yeah the more upbeat songs were the standouts for me

is the last song a rush cover y/n

"heart" is what I want out of this sort of thing

Album sounds really warm and full, but not heavy or overly fussy in the least. Really nice arrangements.

This is an album whose bone-deep grief sits inside music that’s very easy to tap a toe to.

Fantastic review by Kitty Empire: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/feb/06/the-weather-station-ignorance-review-tamara-lindeman-hope-heartbroken-masterpiece

I don't even know if I've reached bone-deep levels of listening to this - I'm not sure if I like this a lot or love it - but I do know it's definitely there for me to listen to if I so choose and open myself up to it. (and for Lindeman, this is well deserved and overdue praise imo)

at the risk of being canadianist, her voice is not unlike that of sarah mclachlan

(which is fine because sarah mclachlan rules)

I've listened to Ignorance a few times today, and I'm definitely into it. (Hadn't heard of them before "Robber" showed up on 2020 year-end lists.) This is probably reductive, but it reminds me of Wye Oak meets This Is the Kit.

I've seen a few reviews making Kate Bush comparisons and Lindeman herself has mentioned Kate Bush as an influence, which, obviously, a lot of people have been influenced by Kate Bush, but what's cool about Ignorance is that the Kate Bush album it reminds me of most is Aerial -- tonally, melodically, lyrically. Which is great because I love Aerial I can't think of anything else I've heard where it really felt like that album specifically was a big influence.

There was a point earlier in the year when YouTube's algorithms really wanted me to listen to the Weather Station every time I played Cassandra Jenkins.

Is there a "best track" that might convince me?

I love this album. I don't hear Kate Bush's influence.

@djh "Robber"

“Loss” is my fave.

I'm of the minority opinion that her previous stuff was better, particularly the s/t but the new one is good and is so relentlessly ILX oriented (sophistipop, mid period Joni, Ricki Lee Jones etc) and is a good album as well

it's a good album but i'm still a little disappointed it didn't end up being a great one

that's pretty much where I'm at

It's not great, nor does it particularly sound like RLJ or Mitchell, but it's a smart album as exactly as long as it needs to be. Good albums are fine.

to me this is so obviously Fumbling Towards Ecstacy more than anything

I hear Spirit of Eden-era Talk Talk.

I also hear War On Drugs on a couple of the more motorik-pop mid-to-uptempo tunes ("Tried To Tell You", "Parking Lot")

it reminds me of most is Aerial -- tonally, melodically, lyrically.

I see that. I hear Spirit Of Eden more.

I'm of the minority opinion that her previous stuff was better

I had a conversation with a friend (and a friend of the band) a couple days ago who good-naturedly expressed the same feeling, an appreciation for the new one but a preference for the previous, so you're not alone!

yeah my fave is Loyalty (2015) by a mile

love it all though and will listen to anything she writes

"Tried to Tell You - Piano Version"

https://open.spotify.com/track/28JduSa5YuHJMvubBBe6VU?si=0e2d76196323416e

https://theweatherstation.bandcamp.com/album/deluxe-edition-of-ignorance

deluxe edition with some live cuts, solo piano versions, & most importantly two outtakes

The slightly dissonant keyboard flourishes on last track "Look" makes me suspect that Ryan Driver is playing on that track--am a sucker for how Tamara makes use of Kieran Adams' breakbeat drum style, so that track's nicely jumping out at me at first flip-through

Great album, but I hate when we get "deluxe versions" of an album 7-8 months after the original release.

100% agree. Jessie Ware doing this for her last few, when I've bought cds on original release, has been frustrating. Prefer what beabadoobee did, releasing the Our Extended Play EP to follow her last album.

Seems a bit weird in the streaming age... I mean, the deluxe version will supposedly be available for "free" on Spotify?

At least that was the case with Waxahatchee

new album out tomorrow! 'how is it that i should look at the stars'

https://theweatherstation.bandcamp.com/album/how-is-it-that-i-should-look-at-the-stars

video for the first single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKj6riuag5M

wow a whole album so soon, awesome

guess it's more sparse, but sounds great on first listen

think it was written/recorded around the same time as ignorance, just it's a set of much more stripped down material

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc6GwE993g4

a lovely return to what made those singles from ignorance so good

promising!

hyped

album out today

update: I love this album

i love this album

this is such diamonddave85 catnip: talk talk-era sarah mclachlan (h/t ivy), rain tree crow-era david sylvian, some motorik/kosmische and all the beautiful and affecting melodies i come to expect from the band

It really is terrific, might be my favorite of hers yet. I know the Joni Mitchell comparison has kinda always floated out there, but really feeling it on something like "Neon Signs" with the flute and her vocal delivery.

I like the album a lot. I have to be in the mood for it -- a lot of quiet things.

The horn and percussion arrangements are terrific.

The Wrecking Cloud! The Weather Station is kinda the best-example of this rotating cast of superstars

There is not a lot to commend "living in Toronto" these days but knowing that you can go on any given day to the Tranzac and see all the heavies responsible for these "export" releases doing their free improv and bedroom projects. It's halcyon days up here

Intriguing! Hadn't dug too far into the credits yet, what else have they worked on?

Also, in the event that anyone missed this final-track John Southworth cover on the 2022 album, if you fancy a quiet cry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8ObGiU9fJY

Intriguing! Hadn't dug too far into the credits yet, what else have they worked on?

It's impossible to cover it all, best to do a Discogs ping. In the early 00s there was the emergent Rat-Drifting community of jazzers and new-music people interfacing with "the album format" (see Ryan Driver, Eric Chenaux, Sandro Perri/Polmo Polpo, Doug Tielli/The Silt, Alex Lukashevsky/Deep Dark United); Jennifer Castle was as well; players such as Nick Fraser). In the early 10s the Holy Oak community popped up with similar thesis but younger players (see Thom Gill, Bram Gielen, Philippe Melanson, Steven Foster, Johnny Spence, Dan Fortin, Josh Cole, Joe Shabason, many many others) and coalesced around different projects (Bernice, for example; or more recently The Dun Dun Band with ILX's Craig D; or Eucalyptus).

This stable of players/producers sometimes appears on "export" releases-- Martha Wainwright most notably-- Julia Jacklin's Pre Pleasure-- The Weather Station for sure-- there's overlap with Destroyer but he's still very-much Vancouver-- so so many others. Everybody I've named is a True Heavy, a master of their primary instrument and likely a master of their secondary one, likely adept at solo or group improvisation, likely have their own unmissable solo material/band/whatever.

There is a monthly series called The Holy Oak Family Singers, their residence is Tranzac (Holy Oak closed several years ago), and they typically have a "theme" for every night. Felicity and Luka and Thom are always participating, it is jam-packed. It's an unbelievable energy.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=554924208465852 a cute little link from their Mary Margaret Tribute night a few years ago

Thanks! Def gives me a good head start!

The Kate Bush night last December was great; Sarah Ruba singing "This Woman's Work" was insane insane insane

https://www.instagram.com/p/DFBuLb-tSa0/?hl=en&img_index=17 click over to the last frame

Ugh and it feels fucked up to make a post about this crew of musicians wishing naming some of the other heavies: Karen Ng, Nick Storring, Isla Craig, Blake Nelson, Brandon Valdivia, and ofc Colin Fisher