Secret Meeting score: 73
by Philip Moss
Being a Canadian singer/songwriter comes with certain pressures, such has been the brilliance produced by its country’s men and women over the last fifty years. Having developed and honed her craft across her first two records, actress turned songwriter, Tamara Linderman, self produced her third record, The Weather Station – one of 2017’s best and most underrated albums.
With much of the set taken from the self-titled record, opener, Impossible, places more emphasis on the groove than its recorded counterpart, and its soaring male harmonies – provided by bassist, Ben Whitely, and guitarist, Will Kidman – elevate its choruses. Likewise, You and I (On the Other Side of the World), arguably the best song in Linderman’s cannon to date, benefits from the punch brought by her three piece band, while not overpowering her delicately fragile vocals.
However, the same cannot be said for Free – she loses the restrained instrumentation and lushness that makes the the album feel so special. Kidman’s biting Telecaster feels overblown, and at times wanders into unnecessary noodling that takes away from the beautiful simplicity of Linderman’s penwomanship.
Where she truly comes into her own though is on Floodplain from her second record, Loyalty. The song is performed alone, and the stripped back nature allows her gorgeous vocals and subtly tasteful guitar parts to blossom. As is the case with the ‘internet request’ What Am I Gonna Do With Everything I Know? and her encore of Traveller, which both left the sold out Manchester crowd in a respectful absolute silence.
Linderman is a fine songwriter, and if her third record has passed you by to this point I urge you to do yourself a favour and get out to your local record store to pick it up. One just hopes moving forward that she places the same restraints on her backing band that she did during the recording process of her wonderfully understated masterpiece.
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