From Dylan\u2019s Blood On The Tracks<\/i> to Joni Mitchell\u2019s Blue<\/i> to Marvin Gaye\u2019s Here, My Dear<\/i>\u2014not to mention Fleetwood Mac\u2019s Rumours<\/i>, Bruce Springsteen\u2019s Tunnel Of Love<\/i> and Bon Iver\u2019s For Emma, Forever Ago<\/i>\u2014the breakup album has a long and storied history. For so many creatives, making art becomes a way to process emotions that can otherwise feel overwhelming.<\/p>\n
New York singer-songwriter Noam Weinstein\u2019s 2016 album In Waves<\/i> saw him working through a case of emotional whiplash as his mother\u2019s death intersected with his son\u2019s birth. In 2020 he explored something of a mid-life crisis in 42\u00bd<\/i>. His 2022 album finds the sensitive-yet-soul-baring Weinstein going through another wrenching transition: divorce. Undivorceable<\/i> may be the perfect title for an album of songs about deceiving oneself and others, about the masks we all wear to hide our pain, and about the potential consequences when the masks come off.<\/p>\n
For a songwriter who\u2019s always worn his heart on his sleeve, it\u2019s both unsurprising and perhaps inevitable that this album feels bracingly raw and cathartic, a revisitation (and one hopes to some extent purging) of every devastating moment through a season of dissolution. Never one for half-measures, here Weinstein offers a full-body embrace of the pain and grief associated with a foundational relationship coming apart at the seams.<\/p>\n
Piano man Weinstein receives strong support from frequent collaborator and producer\/arranger Mike Viola, who also contributes guitars, harmonies, and a variety of other subtle touches, backed by a band of Lee Pardini (organ and keys), Jonathan Flaugher (bass) and Abe Rounds (drums). A number of songs are also fleshed out with string arrangements by Trey Pollard. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Weinstein and Viola smartly build the album\u2019s sound from the ground up, with plaintive opener \u201cThe Kind Of Love\u201d featuring Weinstein on solo piano and vocals, with strings coming in midway through. The deep melancholy in his voice as Weinstein sings of \u201cThe kind of love that never ever changes\u201d tells you all you need to know about where the album is going; this is the sound of a man trying to convince himself of something that he already knows isn\u2019t true, in a song framed like the overture to a tragic 1940s melodrama. <\/p>\n
The musical accompaniment builds gradually alongside a growing sense of foreboding through the cautiously optimistic \u201cFeeling Again\u201d and the alternately urgent and melancholy \u201cImperfectly Still,\u201d before the tart lounge-blues \u201cDivorced Me\u201d delivers the blow, its matter-of-fact panache repeatedly undercut by the obvious anguish underneath: \u201cYou picked the wrong horse \/ Well what can you do \/ No, I\u2019m not sore \/ I would have divorced me too.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe Had Them Fooled\u201d adds synth while delivering a first-half highlight, expressing something near contempt for the friends and family who were fooled by the central couple\u2019s efforts to cover up the truth of their crumbling marriage; it\u2019s harsh yet distressingly real in its portrayal of human foibles, and undeniably entertaining. First-half closer \u201cCan\u2019t Unask A Question\u201d features bright acoustic guitar as Weinstein examines that moment when everything turns on a single question whose verbalization sets the couple down a road from which there\u2019s no turning back.<\/p>\n
The second half opens with an outlier as \u201cJackpot\u201d arrives full of playful r&b swing, complete with swirling synths, chipper strings, and selective echo on the vocals. It\u2019s an odd concoction in which Weinstein addresses head-on the inherent privilege of being born white. The nearly as experimental \u201cUnnecessary Cowardice\u201d features echoey staccato piano over a steady rhythm section as Weinstein calls out his own cowardice in the relationship without sparing his partner: \u201cTruth is I was kind of lying about me \/ At times I\u2019ve also been very unnecessarily cowardly \/ With my marriage and my work too \/ But at least I\u2019m full of shame, so here\u2019s some shame for you.\u201d It\u2019s a combustible combination of acrimony and desperation. On the equally haunting \u201cOur Little Secret,\u201d Weinstein notes that \u201cNo one checked out \/ No one cheated \/ Then how\u2019s it wrecked now? \/ Our little secret,\u201d before asking \u201cWhat\u2019s the big deal \/ Of the big reveal \/ If everyone near\u2019s \/ Looking away?\u201d <\/p>\n
Weinstein finally turns his attention to the future in the closing pair of songs. The upbeat yet poignant \u201cAnna\u201d features jaunty piano and Casio-like vintage synth as he imagines the couple\u2019s individual lives post-divorce. Then closer \u201cHow It Ends\u201d delivers a heartfelt elegy for the relationship, trying to refocus back on the good parts instead of the shattering end: \u201cWhy should all the nights we\u2019ve known get thrown under the bus \/ How it ends doesn\u2019t change how it was.\u201d It\u2019s a song that honors the relationship in a meaningful way, while also preparing to move forward.<\/p>\n
Stylistically, Weinstein has rightfully been compared to the likes of Randy Newman and Ben Folds, but here he\u2019s more viscerally personal and revealing than either typically is, pushing more into the realm of Eels in his relentless, naturalistic exploration of the trauma associated with a major life passage. This is the sound of a heart breaking and falling to pieces on the floor, only to slowly begin to reassemble itself. It\u2019s hard to know how many spins such a difficult album will get over the long haul, but there\u2019s no question that Undivorceable<\/i> is a captivating listen, both devastatingly honest and immensely tuneful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9781],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-46331","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-noam-weinstein","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46331"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}