Five years after "You are my home" (2006), now there is "We're Fucked", new album by Nathan Amundson.
I've been critical to the previous album but without condemning it. "We're fucked" is the polar opposite. And yes, as someone (TheBlueRogue) posted on my last.fm page, anticipating my review "We're Fucked is pretty great, isn't it? It's definitely become my favorite Rivulets album".
It is something like a rebirth and there are inflections and falsely minor changes intonations he never explored so far.
I admit, I know his discography on the tip of my fingers, having listened to almost everything with a deep attention and on "We're fucked" I'm surprised by arrowheads I didn't expect. The changes are tiny, they are huge. The icing on the cake is that Bob Weston is mastering the record.
This is Rivulets how I wished it would be since the beginning, Nathan Amundson backed by a bassist and a drummer who both understand him truly, and never cross limits. It is epiphanic.
It sounds like "Sadstyle" (S), like "Down Colourful Hill" (Red House Painters), like "I could live in hope" (Low) but it sounds truly authentic and beautifully imperfect.
There are a few songs I may would discard but not condemn and may possibly finally accept, I'm just surprised how he drinks water from the his original inspiration source with such an innocence, but isn't it what slowcore is? Indeed, definitely, this is a slowcore masterpiece, a myth and strangely it makes me want to listen again to some songs by Bluetile Lounge or Codeine.
But well, how to pass "Interstate", how to cross by foot a highway, a stream as powerful as the opening song. Two minutes and one second, which make me feel I'm living again, and those lyrics, those thoughts which are so mine too, which I can identify with a song now, haunting.
The electric guitar on "No Talking", the reverb on vocals which adds a live impression, and the slow rise of intensity, I'm not asking for more.
Rivulets as we know it on "The Road", freewheeling until the electric guitar and drums join the game for stormy choruses. Intense.
Even short breathings got their place, "I am", vibrating like a lighter through the night, then disappearing again, unnoticed or almost, but a precious instant.
Of course I may not adhere to all the tracks but that's the price to pay for such drastic change and I don't even criticize "Gentile Boyfriend" which I would probably like much better live, and I'm much more enjoying the walk on frozen lakes offered by "Everybody's on the run".
And with the instrumental "Dewayne" you realize it's the first album as legendary, as troubling as the author himself, 1 min 43 seconds of reverberated electric guitar drifting, priceless and intangible. "Come see me" is his turn to emulate Neil Young's "Harvest" era.
Is “Sheep Among Wolves” his best song ever or am I just in a state of shock listening to it? For sure it hurts.
Yes, I don't get the rage of "Souls" but still respect it, as it serves as an antidote, making the beauty of a track like "Change in your heart" just more meaningful, and a secondary track like "I Don't Want To Be Found"doesn't turn the intensity down before a last killer track, "This stays true".
I see this album as a big step forward, I never felt myself so in adequacy with one of his albums, yet admitting I sill think it's an imperfect one. I hope he will goes on working with Francesco Candura (bass) and Nathan Vollmar (drums).
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