American singer-songwriter Nate Amos has been releasing music under various names for well over a decade, but has found his stride in the 2020s. With five releases since 2020 as part of the experimental duo Water From Your Eyes, and two under his solo project This Is Lorelei, it’s clear that Amos is not short of ideas he’s eager to share.
Amos’ creative stretch as This Is Lorelei continues with his Matador Records debut, “The Singer in My Band,” released on Friday, Sept. 11. Impressively, it’s Amos’ third year in a row releasing an album under the alias.
The opening “I Will Eat My Heart in the Morning Light,” develops in an overt alt-country style, something Amos has flirted with in the past. A twangy electric guitar line drives the song forward but gradually falls to the background as an acoustic guitar countermelody takes over. Amos’ voice stays steady as he sings about commitment to a lover, with each chorus trading his characteristic autotune for soft and subtle vocal layering.
Changing his sound around is nothing new for Amos, who’s notoriously difficult to associate with a specific genre. But with recurring themes of indie pop structures and electronic elements, it’s not surprising that the following two tracks, both singles, emerge with more immediate energy.
“Oh No Now My” begins with a strong sense of repetition, where the same instrumental melody and drum arrangement hold each part of the track together. Each longing call of “Oh no, now my Joey / I don’t wanna let you miss this much” feels like getting slapped in the face with a hook, one that’ll stay in your head for hours. A growing volume, along with psychedelic guitar licks and feedback, ensures the refrain stays fresh toward the end.
The equally catchy “Billy Came Back” features dazzling synths while Amos sings about the transfixing power of a singer named Billy, presumably a karaoke star. Amos’ sister joins in for the chorus; the sibling duo seemingly mesmerized with Billy “like he’s singing from the bottom of a deep blue sea.”
Amos sings in a lighter and higher-pitched fashion on the following “Watching Heaven Fall,” which is the closest he gets to sounding like his autotune past. While the opening tracks featured some stylistic shifts, the album’s predominant sound finally emerges. The instrumental palette is nearly all acoustic, cultivating a pop-esque Americana experience. This comes as Amos dives into youthful disregard for religion in an ironically lighthearted fashion.
The forming genre theme accounts for less surprise when the title track takes things in a bluegrass direction, one that’s no doubt inspired by his sister and father, who perform as a bluegrass duo. Amos’ father performs the banjo that brings the song together, capturing the plight of a woman living in Texas when her heart belongs to Chicago.
“Hey Sarah Is It Gonna Rain Forever” boasts one of the most captivating progressions on the album. An intricate fingerstyle guitar melody kicks things off, but the wistful riff later takes turns in the spotlight with electric guitar playing and string arrangements instead. Despite the lightness, the track is one of the most somber on the record. Amos details a declining relationship where the speaker concludes: “my mouth won’t speak, and I always get high / And my love feels weak.”
The penultimate “And I Haven’t Seen My Love in Quite a While” seems like an ordinary breakup story at first, where the speaker mourns a past relationship. But Amos flips the narrative on its head toward the end, revealing that the speaker had died and now writes songs about the woman he loved.
Despite the depressing undertones as he calls, “Lover, can you hear me though I cannot speak aloud? / For though I cannot hold you now, I’ll never put you down,” the jaunty acoustics make it clear the speaker has found some solace in his postmortem state. The sentiment pairs well with the instrumentally barren closer, “Don’t You Cry in Lonesomeness,” which could be interpreted as a musical attempt to comfort his partner.
With only 34 minutes, Amos still manages to deliver an onslaught of catchy hooks with varying instrumental intensity. While a less varied experience than his 2024 release, “Box for Buddy, Box for Star,” the commitment to a specific style offers valuable consistency that makes each track truly belong next to one another.
Rating: 3.5/5