Widowspeak: – “All Yours”

Widowspeak

Los Angeles - Widowspeak’s second full-length, All Yours, sees the formerly Brooklyn-based duo embracing an entirely new life, while still mourning parts of the old. The album is their most personal yet. It was produced in their home in the Catskills. The album celebrates dream pop and elements of shoegaze and classic country, interweaving aspects that make the album their most authentic simply because they are at their most at ease. By leaving the fast-paced Brooklyn music scene, Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas have created an album dedicated to a new lifestyle with a production full of airy harmonies and bluesy guitar chords that signify that All Yours is actually more their own.

The band started their foray into the music scene five years ago and as a trio. They landed a deal with Brooklyn label Captured Tracks and dropped Widowspeak in 2011. After drummer Michael  Stasiak’s departure in 2012, the band moved forward as a duo. They released Almanac and The Swamps in 2013. When the Brooklyn music scene proved too exhausting creatively, Hamilton and Thomas moved to the Catskills and more relaxed than ever, started work on All Yours. 

Much of the album reflects on nostalgia and residual feelings about the departure from New York. The title track, “All Yours”, set with Thomas’ minimal guitar, a slow pulsing drumbeat and Hamilton’s country-esque vocals, is the perfect intro to Widowspeak’s longing for New York, but at the same time, relief over the distance: “I stopped looking for you / In the places I won’t go to / Because they’re all yours / And I was once all yours too.” All Yours is dripping with references to location, and the conflict between leaving and staying. “Narrows”, with its slow stretches in vocals and dreamy psych, ruminates on the art of leaving: “Maybe I felt it / Something to keep me / Then I forgot I / Dreamt about leaving.” “Narrows” changes expertly from verses to chorus, with Hamilton singing higher and with a lighter form of intensity. Finally, “Cosmically Aligned” sees them letting go, “I knew you then / Maybe I just don’t know you anymore.”

All Yours also sees role reversals for Hamilton and Thomas, with Thomas taking the lead on vocals on “Borrowed World,” which is the first time he has done so in Widowspeak’s history. This, in a way, makes the album whole. Widowspeak tries new things this time, and it more than works. Like most of the album, the track makes use of the duo’s creativity in the variety of genres that they conquer. Hamilton moves effortlessly from pop to country garage, reserving the sweet moments for choruses. Thomas’ guitar is focal, with frequent instances of a rock sound to a dreamy psych country.

All Yours is evidence of Widowspeak’s dedication to their craft: by moving away from a music-making hot bed and still being able to produce an album more true to themselves.  The album took two years to produce, but seems to be their best release so far.

All Yours dropped September 4th via Captured Tracks. Like Widowspeak on Facebook and follow tour dates here.

 

 

 

 

Dakota Smith

Dakota Smith

Raised in Los Angeles by two former Deadheads, Dakota was bound to love music. The soundtrack of her childhood would include both Elvis’ (Presley and Costello), Frank Sinatra, Oasis, Nirvana and Van Morrison. Dakota left the comfort of sunny Los Angeles for the snow-covered Flatirons of Boulder, Colorado to pursue her English degree at the University of Colorado. While studying abroad in London during her last year of college, she changed her mind about a career in academia and began to write. She moved to Portland shortly thereafter. When she’s not working on her collection of poetry and essays, or dancing, she can be found listening to anything from Acid Rap to Folk to Indie Rock.

Follow her on twitter in case she says something funny: @LikeTheStates
Dakota Smith

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