An Offbeat by CFUV review
Image via The Arts Desk.
The Weather Station’s seventh studio album, Humanhood, is as beautiful as it is disorienting. The Toronto-based artist behind the project, Tamara Lindeman (or Tamara Hope), has never shied away from difficult subjects. Her most recent record, released Jan. 17 via Fat Possum Records and Next Door Records under her artist name The Weather Station, follows her critically acclaimed, climate-focused album Ignorance (2021), and live companion album How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars (2022).
Humanhood does not aim to please. But, by confronting shared feelings of disconnection, contemporary uncertainty, and self-reflection, it does so anyway. Flitting between folk, jazz, and rock, Humanhood is thick with the delicate instrumentation of Kieran Adams, Philippe Melanson, Ben Boye, Ben Whiteley, and Karen Ng, embodying the comfortable elegance of a band that has finally perfected their craft.
While Lindeman’s earlier work focused on storytelling through careful sonic arrangements, this album is a raw, chaotic confessional. Humanhood gradually builds and releases tension with haunting mediations like “Descent,” “Mirror,” and “Ribbon,” breathless and danceable interventions like “Neon Signs,” and “Window,” and electronically-influenced ambient tracks like “Passage” and “Aurora.” The result is a lush and atmospheric sound that allows fans to feel like they are both discovering something new, and returning home.
Humanhood feels like a coming of age for The Weather Station as an artist. In a world where we’re constantly chasing higher highs and louder noises, Humanhood stands confidently in its patient restraint. Released less than a month into the new year, this album sets the tone for what’s to come. It is hopeful, fragmented, and deeply cathartic, cementing The Weather Station as a consistent and necessary presence in the indie scene. The title captures the essence of the album – fleshy and real – and suggests that accepting life’s uncertainty is the only way through.
