On her debut album,
All of It Was Mine
,
the Weather Station
's
Tamara Lindeman
was already at a crossroads between the folk of her early EPs and the styles she embraced later in her career. Her immersion in Toronto's thriving acoustic scene comes to the fore on the record's first half, which delivers some of the purest folk in her body of work. The jangly, wildflower beauty of "Everything I Saw" (on which
Lindeman
sings the praises of digging up carrots and "cheap cotton skirts") is a highlight, as is the beautiful fingerpicking on "Came So Easy." The live feeling of
's recording spotlights the nuances of
's playing and especially her singing. Her voice takes on a cozy glow on "Running Around Asking" and a silvery,
Joni Mitchell
-like cast on "Traveller." However, anytime
seems too indebted to tradition, she turns it on its head. The banjo and pedal steel on "Trying" have a nostalgic pull, but the song closes on an ambivalent tone that feels decidedly modern. Similarly, there's steeliness as well as sweetness on "Know It to See It," and "If I've Been Fooled" is a lullaby about lies that shows
is more than willing to subvert song forms. As the album comes to a close, she also nods toward the artful instrumentation that blossomed on
's later releases. Strings and reverb-heavy backing vocals give "Yarrow and Mint" an otherworldly quality; an electric guitar echoes the clipped twang of her vocals on "Chip on My Shoulder"; and "Nobody"'s rock unfolds in triumphant slow motion. Ultimately,
's simplicity is as confident and fully realized as the more ambitious sounds
tackled on
The Weather Station
and
Ignorance
. ~ Heather Phares