A Weather - Cove
A Tiny Thing of Enormous Beauty
Some music quietly goes about its business profoundly mellow; rewarding your attention without necessarily demanding it. Other music takes gallant risks; daring to do things that seem ill-advised but nonetheless materialize into greatness. Rarely they do both; walking a tightrope, taking lucrative chances while somehow still remaining subtle and unassuming. Cove, the debut album from Portland band A Weather, is just that sort of music, ambitious in its scope but laid-back in its aesthetic.
This is an album that discovers enormous depth in the smallest of situations - universal truth in specific circumstances. ‘Small Potatoes’ explores ambiguous turns of phrase until they become heartfelt reflections on the awkwardness of intimacy. ‘Oh My Stars’ takes images as mundane as an open bag of chips and crafts them into an emotive ballad with nary a note out of place. In ‘Pinky Toe,’ s stubbed digit is the central point upon which the band constructs - strangely interlocking rhythms, lovely melodic turns, simple, beautiful, rising and falling melismas sure to gently floor you. And that’s just it; each song is a quiet little utterly charming victory.
There are little storms to weather with Cove. If Gerber’s voice (an emotive whisper somewhere between Stuart Murdoch and Sam Beam) seems too affected, or if lyrics seem a bit too self-consciously quirky - overstaying their welcome, then the album’s best moments will make you forget such complaints. You’ll be left wanting to live in some particular moment of each track within Cove, but also anxious to ensue. Subtle strength, lots of heart, and a good sense of humor coalesce into a bold-but intimate-beginning for an immensely promising new band.
Drew Messinger-Michaels
