Nate Amos, best known as one half of indie-electronic duo Water From Your Eyes, returns with the second album from his solo project This Is Lorelei. The Singer in My Band, his first for Matador Records, follows 2024’s Box For Buddy, Box For Star, delivering another disarming blend of folk, country and indie-rock with a distinctly Americana feel.
Amos’ writing for This Is Lorelei is much more transparent, honest and up-front than his work with Water From Your Eyes. While his primary band often draws on the retro aesthetics of 2000s indie, freak-folk, the futurist experimental pop, This Is Lorelei delves further back into the more traditional canon of classic folk, rock and indie, reimagining those familiar tropes into something that feels refreshingly new.
Fans of like-minded contemporaries Alex G, MJ Lenderman and Greg Freeman will find plenty to enjoy across The Singer in My Band, as will anyone with a soft spot for Kurt Vile, Stephen Malkmus, Silver Jews, and Elliott Smith.
Amos has described The Singer in My Band as a ‘road album’, and it’s easy to see why. From the opening confession of "I Will Ear My Heart in the Morning Light" to the closing, voice-in-your-ear comfort of the softly sung "Don’t You Cry in Lonesomeness", it’s an incredibly varied record that somehow pulls off its eclectic bag of tricks with a carefully balanced mix of skilled aplomb and slacker-like nonchalance.
In between, it’s impossible not to be enamoured by the breezy soft-psych of "Billy Came Back", the catchy country twang and lyrical storytelling of "Watching Heaven Fall" and the title track, or the Big Star-esque southern pop and heartland rock of "Sailing (Your Baby’s Down)". "Hey Sarah Is It Gonna Rain Forever" will have you mesmerised by Amos’ sublime finger-picked riff and its slow, climactic build of swirling strings and brewing guitar storm, while the punchy, Byrds-like jangle of "The Kid With The Crown" might even conjure memories of pre-major-label R.E.M.
The Singer in My Band forgoes the reliance on certain electronic elements present on his previous record, and is largely recorded with what I imagine to be live instrumentation: guitars (both electric and acoustic), drums, bass, as well as banjo. It's all the better for it, and the players accompanying Amos on this set of humble but memorable and endearing tunes are his father Bob (himself a bluegrass musician), his sister Sarah and his partner Al, contributing to the album’s innate warmth and sense of closeness, trust and understanding.
There’s a genuine feeling of intimacy running through the album that makes its songs feel genuinely inhabited rather than put together from fragmentary material. As a whole, the record sounds as if it was recorded during a dedicated and concentrated period of time. A deliberate decision to catch fleeting inspiration. A generous record that becomes more likeable with every listen, The Singer in My Band is the kind of album that just keeps on giving.
The Singer in My Band is out now on vinyl & CD
