Shearwater – The New World – (Polyborus) – “Nothing is ordinary” sings Jonathan Meiburg; “Hold the lens up to the light, or wander around in hell” he says. “Is that new Shearwater? That’s good, that’s classic Shearwater” comes a voice from another room. we like Shearwater around here, always have. A hauntingly tactile journey through all kinds of light, of life: reassuring, there’s something very reassuring about Shearwater, about Shearwater frontman Jonathan Meiburg and the way he sings, the things he chooses to sing about. It is hard not to feel good when Shearwater music is flowing through your day, through your days, those days that you think just might go on forever. This new album is classic Shearwater, classic Jonathan Meiburg and everything that’s around him; the naturalist and the rock singer (is he a rock singer?).
Entrancing, alive with a natural beauty, a curiosity, they’ve always had that gentle power, they really don’t need to make a big noise about any of it, more the owl than the noisy announcements of a pigeon wing. Everything perfectly placed once more, perfectly paced, timed, Daydream Unbeliever particularly so. Nothing is ordinary and that piece of music, that unbelieving of dreams, that really is classic Shearwater and no wine watered down here. This is the heartbeat of real life, it isn’t a standout though, this latest Shearwater album is no one trick pony (or one trick slug down there in Marigolds), every single piece of carefully precisely put together music here on The New World is just right.
“The New World is also a risk that paid off. After years of working with record labels, Shearwater chose to crowdfund the album and release it themselves, letting them assemble it across four years of travelling, fieldwork, and collaboration. (It was recorded in London, Berlin, New York, and the band’s Texas headquarters, with Duszynski as chief engineer and additional production by Leo Abrahams; it was mixed in Los Angeles by Danny Reisch.) Meiburg’s field recordings are woven throughout, stretching the record’s geographic range even further; there are German church bells and blackbirds, Tasmanian rivers and forest ravens, coyotes in the California mountains”.
And one day, you will wish you had paid more attention to it all, and there is so much to pay attention to, so much to reward you: “I think most of us”, Jonathan Meiburg says, finally, “me included, don’t understand where we really are. Not viscerally, at any rate. And when I feel lost, or hopeless, or useless, looking carefully at the living world outside the internet is the only thing that helps. It’s so much stranger and wilier and more beautiful than you’d think. I’m still learning about kinds of beauty that I’d never even imagined”. There some excellent notes to go with the album on the band’s Bandcamp page
That is such a relaxed voice, ethereal, if you’ve listened to Shearwater before then this will feel like an old friend you haven’t seen for a couple of years warmly greeting you (if you don’t know the band then yes, this is a good starting point). It isn’t just the voice, it is the whole, the everything coming together, the composition, the playing, the sound, the field recordings, the details, the need not to be obvious. Gentle without ever being anywhere near twee, it is a celebration without glossing over that wildness; there is always a hint of wildness that stops it from being anywhere neat twee. And then there’s the bits that gently swell almost without letting you know it is happening – that opening to More and More, those keys and that birdsong does surround your inside and forget all that you knew before and just look, just be aware, something to treasure; Walk down to where it’s lighter.
That bit there in The Only Sound I’m Afraid Of…
Hey, this is classic Shearwater, they’re sounding as good as ever, maybe even better but then that is a hard call, they’ve always been so so good. As for the closing piece of music with Laurie Anderson, that really should be discovered with very little information, that is something extra special. Nothing is ordinary Shearwater and Jonathan Meiburg, let him hold that lens up to the light for you… (sw)
Bandcamp / shearwatermusic.com
Further reading? Well there feels like there’s a conection between Jonathan Meiburg and the much missed Norman Ackroyd
THE ORGAN 