The Weather Station - All of It Was Mine (2021)

On her debut album, All of It Was Mine, the Weather Station's Tamara Lindeman was already at a crossroads between the folk of her early EPs and the styles she embraced later in her career. Her immersion in Toronto's thriving acoustic scene comes to the fore on the record's first half, which delivers some of the purest folk in her body of work. The jangly, wildflower beauty of "Everything I Saw" (on which Lindeman sings the praises of digging up carrots and "cheap cotton skirts") is a highlight, as is the beautiful fingerpicking on "Came So Easy." The live feeling of All of It Was Mine's recording spotlights the nuances of Lindeman's playing and especially her singing. Her voice takes on a cozy glow on "Running Around Asking" and a silvery, Joni Mitchell-like cast on "Traveller." However, anytime Lindeman seems too indebted to tradition, she turns it on its head. The banjo and pedal steel on "Trying" have a nostalgic pull, but the song closes on an ambivalent tone that feels decidedly modern. Similarly, there's steeliness as well as sweetness on "Know It to See It," and "If I've Been Fooled" is a lullaby about lies that shows Lindeman is more than willing to subvert song forms. As the album comes to a close, she also nods toward the artful instrumentation that blossomed on the Weather Station's later releases. Strings and reverb-heavy backing vocals give "Yarrow and Mint" an otherworldly quality; an electric guitar echoes the clipped twang of her vocals on "Chip on My Shoulder"; and "Nobody"'s rock unfolds in triumphant slow motion. Ultimately, All of It Was Mine's simplicity is as confident and fully realized as the more ambitious sounds Lindeman tackled on The Weather Station and Ignorance.