Nathaniel Rateliff - In Memory of Loss

"Oh hi Shaun, have you run out of new stuff to review?" screams a jaunty chaffinch inbetween morsels of muesli. Yes, chaffinch, yes I reply, although I guess I could look into that new Death Cab for Cutie record. "Ah, but you don't care about them!" the chaffinch laughs, reminding me its name is Gulliver. Indeed, indeed I don't.
SO I rush to my emergency tactic and download something I saw on Jools Holland, albeit a version oddly without track 7, 'Shroud', which I'm sure is a pivotal moment. Edit: ah, that was a lie on Amazon's part. Never mind.

Nathaniel Rateliff is a band (deceptively named after just one member) currently situated in Denver, Colorado. Led by the man of the same name, they have so far gathered little buzz this side of the pond[1], but that's never a foolproof way of gauging goodness. As mentioned, he performed solo on the Jools Holland show at the end of May 2011, with a rather moving rendition of 'Early Spring Till'. The track comes second on the record, after a rousing 'Once In A Great While' (with beautiful folky twinkling pianos and cute lyrics - "Don't be so bashful /It's me in the shadows"). But it's the vocal harmonies on 'Early Spring Till' that are the most showstopping instruments, with bleakly self-conscious lyrics.


Regrets and negative thoughts persist throughout the album (as its title would suggest) and this much is evident on 'We Never Win', where a distant organ builds suspense with classic blues hums and guitar plucks. There's a kind of world-weary stance with references to poverty and failed dreams that will probably go a long way in explaining his relatively unknown status (in times of economic downturn, who wants to hear the lyric "let us rest 'til it's over"?) as seen on 'Longing and Losing'. 'Brakeman' before this ominously refrains "they'll carry us away" as if to rub in the helplessness.

Rateliff's voice at times evokes Leonard Cohen and one such instance is on 'Oil and Lavender', a track so quietly romantic and modern country that it could have easily fitted in with the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack. 'You Should've Seen The Other Guy' is a tale of a fistfight that recalls Bob Dylan at his most lighthearted, although it's tough to imagine Dylan in a fracas (but he'd have surely done it more poetically than "If there's one way out, it's to swing my fists through a crowd"). "Whimper and Wail" is another burst of helplessness blues (hey, it's en vogue this year) that opens promisingly "I want to run around wailing!" and gets a lot more pessimistic ("I'm just some fall back weak little whore").

There's a couple more "preh" tracks (both 'pretty' and 'meh') in 'Boil & Fight' and 'When We Could', a comment which just prompted a tick to fly out of nowhere and attack my hair - which I can only assume is evidence of Rateliff's status as the reincarnation of Pan. 'A Lamb on the Stone' directly addresses futility and desperation ("Ah, there's big confusion on the border to nowhere/Hey are you making it out on a limb?") and could pass for a lack of faith. The track ends triumphantly with some more inspired instrumentation that kickstarts the energy. "Don't you get tired of me and the sound?" Rateliff ironically asks at the end of 'When You're Here' which is oddly grating given its minimalism and silence - both of which dissipate for album closer 'Happy Just to Be', by far the most unique track on show with its pre-chorus drums and strings that put more in common with Coldplay than Leonard Cohen.


The lyrics are often riddles that can make for some frustrating listening - the record is neither poetic nor political enough to really stand out as a concept record, and the lack of real diversity in the sounds means it'll rarely stick out to the crowds. Which leaves us with charm. And charm quickly fades. The record is far too long to really keep much interest, too, but these faults aside is occasionally beautiful.

Rating: 5.5/10
Highlights: Happy Just to Be, Early Spring Till, Oil & Lavender, A Lamb on the Stone
Avoid: Boil & Fight, When We Could, When You're Here
Artwork Watch: At first glance I feared I saw Comic Sans, but it is not. The picture is pretty though.

[1]-Coincidentally, I seem to get more readers from the USA which I find a little curious but nonetheless charming in a vaguely jingoist way.