The Weather Station's 'Window' into new album
The Weather Station Releases “Window” Second Single From
New Album Humanhood Out January 17th Via Fat Possum Announces run of UK in store performances in January
European tour in March
The Weather Station — the project of Toronto-based Tamara Lindeman — recently announced Humanhood, her new album out January 17th via Fat Possum. Today, she presents the climactic new single/video “Window,” which follows the “sleek and driving” (Aquarium Drunkard) “Neon Signs,” and announces a North American Tour, on sale Fri. Nov. 22 at 10am local time. “Window” is an anthem of escape. The slashing guitar and spiraling electronics conjure a panic attack, the mind demanding answers. “I can’t explain right now,” she sings during one of the album’s most gripping moments, “just that I’m leaving.” The song’s video, directed by Philippe Léonard, presents Lindeman’s performance of the song projected out the window of a moving van onto trees, forest and passing signs, recalling the rippling fabric motif of the Humanhood album art. Lindeman describes the video as being “filmed on the island of Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs, Quebec late one night with battery powered projector, with many attempts to get that one perfect take. Philippe’s note to me was ‘you are the window.’”
Watch the Video for “Window”
Humanhood is the weirdest Weather Station record yet - the most visceral. It’s also the strongest, the most cinematic, the most complete as an evocation of an inner landscape. Each song mirrors, sonically and musically, the state of mind described in the lyric; moving from distant to claustrophobic, overwhelming to beautiful. Listened to from front to back, the album transcribes a journey from dissociation back towards connection; a journey echoed in form, in sound, and lyric - and in the making of the record itself.
The word ‘humanhood’ is not a word one hears often, though it is cited in the Oxford English Dictionary as a single word which covers “the state and condition of being human”. Against the backdrop of generative AI, of the climate crisis, of the increasing digitization of the world, Lindeman says she felt “an urgency to shine some light on this word, this idea of humanness.” The rippling fabric of the cover is intentional; so is the scrawled text, the gritty synth textures. At the heart of the record is a very real attempt to reckon with what it means to be embodied, to be imperfect, to be “carrying this humanhood / ungracefully.”
Recorded in Toronto in late 2023, Lindeman and co-producer Marcus Paquin combined drummer Kieran Adams, percussionist Philippe Melanson, and bassist Ben Whiteley, the powerhouse rhythm section from Ignorance, with new music improvisers Karen Ng and Ben Boye. In the overdubs, we find revered folk interpreter Sam Amidon squaring off against ambient artist Joseph Shabason, and British fingerstyle guitarist James Elkington on lead. Mixed in Los Angeles by Joseph Lorge, it’s a record of intense details; piano notes disintegrating into static, fiddle materializing out of a cloud of cymbals. Clear, powerful pop songs, some of the most satisfying Lindeman has ever written; fade into view or arrive all of a sudden; before abrupt turns, tonal shifts, acid wash synth fadeouts which dissolve into interstitial pieces that carry the listener from song to song. Radiant and propulsive, discursive and strange, Humanhood is the most ambitious Weather Station album to date.
Watch the Video for “Neon Signs”
The Weather Station Tour Dates
Instore performances:
Sat. Jan. 18 - Birmingham, UK @ HMV Birmingham Sun. Jan. 19 - Bristol, UK @ RT Bristol
Mon. Jan. 20 - Liverpool, UK @ RT Liverpool
Tue. Jan. 21 - Leeds, UK @ Jumbo Leeds Wed. Jan. 22 - Nottingham, UK @ RT Nottingham
Thu. Jan. 23 - London, UK @ Rough Trade East
European tour: Wed. Feb. 26 - Hamburg, DE @ Nochtspeicher
Thu. Feb. 27 - Copenhagen, DK @ DR Studie 2
Fri. Feb. 28 - Berlin, DE @ Silent Green
Sun. Mar. 2 - Amsterdam, NL @ Tolhuistuin
Mon. Mar. 3 - Brussels, BE @ Botanique / Museum
Tue. Mar. 4 - Paris, FR @ Point Ephemere
Thu. Mar. 6 - Brighton, UK @ CHALK
Fri. Mar. 7 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Sat. Mar. 8 - Dublin, IE @ Button Factory
Mon. Mar. 10 - Glasgow, UK @ Saint Luke’s
Tue. Mar. 11 - Manchester, UK @ Band On The Wall
Wed. Mar. 12 - Bristol, UK @ The Fleece
Thu. Mar. 13 - London, UK @ Islington Assembly Hall
