Review: The Weather Station – How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars

For most artists the experience is rare, if indeed it they ever experience it; the opposite of writer’s block, where ideas, musical passages and words are all flowing out naturally and turning into the roots of songs. For Tamara Lindemann, AKA The Weather Station, the period in which the material that made up 2021’s highly acclaimed Ignorance proved dynamic, leaving her with the belief that at some point it should be revisited.

This residue existed in the context of the same conscious thought patterns – disconnection and conflict, love, birds, and climate feelings – but was more introverted and reflective. The idea of a companion album to square Ignorance’s circle grew, and the singer accordingly pulled together a group of musicians in her home city of Toronto for a three day session to realise it.

One of the stipulations was that there would be no percussion, a deliberate trick to avoid fastening the songs to the strictures of rhythm. How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars in turn is sometimes like being in the room with this austere music, an intimacy that offers unexpected succour on the likes of Endless Time, Stars and To Talk About. They’re evidence enough that this a collection we should be glad survived the delete button.

You can read the full review here.