Noah Gundersen - Lover (August 23, 2019) Album • Page 18

Out of time sounds like mansions and the second half of older is like a now, now song.

 

Dead Oceans or Jagjaguwar seem like logical choices. He'd be an interesting outlier on like ATO or ANTI. But honestly, anyone who can just get him off his island and into the singer songwriter touring scene. Phoebe could take him out.

 

I feel like Noah album rankings 3 or 4 albums from now will be wildly different amongst posters.

 

not sure if anyone listens to Joshua James here - but I get major joshua vibes on Wild Horses

 

Thank you for saying this. I gleefully had the same thought last night.

 

I thought Dualtone was a great fit, but maybe they pigeonholed him as a folky singer/songwriter too much?

 

Saddle Creek

 

Watermelon is definitely my favourite after overplaying this album since Friday.

 

This album is pure magic start to finish.

The production on this is unbelievable. There are so many little details and flourishes. It's not often you get a singer-songwriter record that you can hear something different with every listen.

His lyrics cut so deep on this album too. I'm loving the stories behind the songs that he keeps sharing on social media. It really feels like he left no stone unturned in painting the picture of who he is in this moment right now and what has led him here.

I also back the frustration everyone else is expressing that this album may slip under the radar for a lot of people. If there was any justice in the world, Lose You would get a record-breaking run at number 1.

 

I think Crystal Creek just sets the tone perfectly before Lover. It's like a slow sexy descent into some neon-lit fever dream.

 

It's like...I just don't know how to get people to listen to this kind of music. I've tried really hard, over a very long period of time. I appreciate everyone who has ever taken the rec for Noah or a bunch of other artists like him, who make music that maybe isn't flashy enough for the pop charts or buzzy enough for most music publications, but is real and honest and open. But it's enormously frustrating for me to see him still flying under the radar when he's made three records this decade that I consider to be legit masterpieces.

 

It’s so fucking good it’s unreal

 

hahahahaahah go watch his Instagram story. He went to a Scott Stapp show and documented it. Had a nice laugh this morning.

 

I love how genuinely excited he was haha

 

I find that when people put musicians in the “singer songwriter” category, they feel like their work is relatively interchangeable. Like, obviously Noah’s work is different from Gregory Allen Isakov and Shakey Graves and David Ramirez, but good luck getting my friends to recognize the relative merits. Ends up being like “I like his voice, don’t like his, the songs are all solid.”

 

Yeah this album has ONE review posted to aoty.org and that's from AllMusic.. It doesn't even exist on metacritic. Super bummer...

I've gotten quite a few of my friends super into Noah. I usually end up knowing like 8-10 people when I go see him play in the Detroit area.

 

As much as I love this album, “So What” sounds like a Christian rock song you’d hear on KLOVE.

 

I think you're right, and I find that kind of fascinating. Tends to happen in country, too. I feel like the less familiar you are with certain genres, the more the stuff in those genres runs together. But singer/songwriters do seem to have an especially tough time breaking through the "oh, it's just a guy with a guitar" first impression.

I think part of the problem might be that there aren't really publications/sites right now that focus on this kind of singer/songwriter. There are lots of sites that will write you up if you lean a little more country, or a little more Americana, or a little more pop, but someone like Noah, with folk roots and a lot of different influences, doesn't really have a home in the modern music criticism discourse.

 

Genuine fan. I love it.

 

Lol you are crazy if by that comparison you mean it’s generic. That’s the sound of a man who’s been through some shit and brought a lesson out the other side.

 

Yeah, So What hits me hard. Love his delivery of "Say I love you way too much. And if it kills you, so what"

Sounds silly but I always regret feeling like I should've said 'I love you' more to my father before he passed.
Instant tears when I first heard that song, haha.

That, Crystal Creek, Wild Horses, and Watermelon are my early favorites.

 

Yeah "So What" wasn't instantly one of my favorites but it's really grown on me.

 

As I said before, "So What" has really clicked with me on more recent listens and I love it now.

 

The market is super saturated, and sadly most people don’t care what they listen to.

Also, who is Noah’s demographic audience? He uses mature themes and language in some songs, which kind of tends to rule out teens, and he’s done folk, alt, rock, and pop influenced albums.

The for the lack of better term “College radio scene” would have been a great fit for him, but that was decades ago.

I think personally, he could use his knack for writing versatility on doing original songs for a good film soundtrack. He has a good cinematic visual writing sense. Maybe being featured as the music for some movie trailers could pique or spark some more mainstream interest. It’s worked for others, and he’s had success reaching new listening ears with songs used for Sons of Anarchy for TV.

 

I’m sorry! It hurts me to say it too! Lol
I think it’s lyrically far beyond any of those comparisons (specifically in the verses). But I just can’t help but feel I could hear someone like Chris Tomlin or some other Christian contemporary dude singing that chorus.