The Weather Station releases 'Body Moves'
The Weather Station releases new single “Body Moves” Watch the video
Taken from new album Humanhood released January 17th via Fat Possum
"Eco-friendly auteur documents her journey back from the frayed edge." MOJO
'Album of the Month' "ever more dazzling and sophisticated." Uncut
The Weather Station releases “Body Moves,” the latest single off the forthcoming album, Humanhood, out January 17th via Fat Possum. While many singer songwriters are usually presumed to be diarists, it’s never been that simple for The Weather Station, the project of Tamara Lindeman. Her lyrics use first person, but they don’t end there; rather they tend to branch out into philosophical question marks, existential knots; entangled threads of memory and allegory. On “Body Moves,” she sings “you thought you knew what it was you loved / then again - look at this mess / your body fooled you / your body moved you - yes.” Throughout Humanhood, the body is a constant, acting as a betrayer, or maybe a teacher.
On the creation of “Body Moves” Lindeman says: “This song was the hardest song, we recorded it, changed everything, recorded it again, changed everything, recorded it again. It had to be tender and bruised and painful; like falling into a dream but also into reality. This was yet another song I rejected when I wrote it because I wasn’t sure how to stand behind it. But then again, the song was simply presenting something that is real and that happens; the body fools you, the body moves you, sometimes in directions seemingly self destructive or painful or visceral. Bodies are biological and so is their language; chemical, pain, impulse, shut down, wake up. What matters is the interpretation, the response, whether or not you’re able to hear the signal at all.”
Co-directed by Lindeman and Philipe Léonard, the song’s video depicts what Lindeman calls “the two hemispheres of the mind.” She explains, “One side is taking charge; moving with intention. The other side is sort of drifting in and out of dreams and is more abstract. At the centre is the actual self; in a state of confusion, being pulled by these two separate parts. At times, all three selves coordinate and move together. At other times, they don't. The song describes being misled by the body; a part of you pulling in a different direction than the other. The choreography reflects that; limbs moving with a mind of their own.”
Watch the Video for “Body Moves”
2021’s Ignorance, a “heartbroken masterpiece” (The Guardian), made waves commercially and drew near universal critical acclaim. In addition to the music, Lindeman found herself in the unlikely position of becoming a sort of spokesperson of climate grief; bringing that conversation to Rolling Stone and Pitchfork, the New York Times and The New Yorker. But as a high pressure touring cycle wore on, behind the scenes, she experienced a personal crisis. Laid onto the ongoing backdrop of the climate crisis; the waves of misinformation, the conspiracy theories, the battling theories of human nature, her experience felt less personal, and almost more collective. And so, she got curious. And she wrote songs.
With a long list of song fragments and a series of abstract mission statements, Lindeman and co-producer Marcus Paquin headed into Canterbury Music Studios in late 2023. Combining drummer Kieran Adams, percussionist Philippe Melanson, and bassist Ben Whiteley, (the powerhouse rhythm section from Ignorance), with new music improvisers Karen Ng and Ben Boye, the result was a music of contrasts; straight drums hitting up against soft draped piano and wandering clarinet, organic and synthetic tones doubling and splitting apart. Lindeman brought a subsumed British folk influence to the melodies, eventually landing in the meeting place between disco drums and abstract percussion, new music sax and folk melody - and attempts to push the envelope outwards in every direction.
Humanhood is radiant and propulsive; discursive and strange. It’s a record of intense details; piano notes disintegrating into static, fiddle materializing out of a cloud of cymbals. Clear, powerful pop songs fade into view or arrive all of a sudden; before abrupt turns, tonal shifts, acid wash synth fadeouts. Each song mirrors, sonically and musically, the state of mind described in the lyric; moving from distant to claustrophobic, overwhelming to beautiful. Listened front to back, the album transcribes a journey from dissociation back towards connection; a journey echoed in form, in sound, and lyric - and in the making of the record itself.
Last month, The Weather Station announced an extensive North American Tour which is now on sale. A full list of dates can be found below, and tickets can be purchased here.
Watch the Video for “Neon Signs”
The Weather Station Tour Dates
Sun. Jan. 19 - Bristol, UK @ Rough Trade Bristol - Q&A
Mon. Jan. 20 - Liverpool, UK @ Rough Trade Liverpool - record store performance
Tue. Jan. 21 - Leeds, UK @ Jumbo Leeds - record store performance
Wed. Jan. 22 - Nottingham, UK @ Rough Trade Nottingham - record store performance
Thu. Jan. 23 - London, UK @ Rough Trade East - record store performance
Wed. Feb. 26 - Hamburg, DE @ Nochtspeicher
Thu. Feb. 27 - Copenhagen, DK @ DR Studie 2
Fri. Feb. 28 - Berlin, DE @ Silent Green
Sun. Mar. 2 - Amsterdam, NL @ Tolhuistuin
Mon. Mar. 3 - Brussels, BE @ Botanique / Museum
Tue. Mar. 4 - Paris, FR @ Point Ephemere
Thu. Mar. 6 - Brighton, UK @ CHALK
Fri. Mar. 7 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Sat. Mar. 8 - Dublin, IE @ Button Factory
Mon. Mar. 10 - Glasgow, UK @ Saint Luke’s
Tue. Mar. 11 - Manchester, UK @ Band On The Wall
Wed. Mar. 12 - Bristol, UK @ The Fleece
Thu. Mar. 13 - London, UK @ Islington Assembly Hall
Thu. Mar. 27 - Montreal, QC @ Beanfield Theatre
Fri. Mar. 28 - Boston, MA @ Sinclair
Sat. Mar. 29 - Woodstock, NY @ Levon Helm Studios
Sun. Mar. 30 - Northampton, MA @ Iron Horse Music Hall
Tue. Apr. 1 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
Wed. Apr. 2 - Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Fri. Apr. 4 - Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
Sat. Apr. 5 - Washington, DC @ The Atlantis
Sun. Apr. 6 - Durham, NC @ Motorco
Mon. Apr. 7 - Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle
Tue. Apr. 8 - Nashville, TN @ The Basement East
Thu. Apr. 10 - Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
Fri. Apr. 11 - St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club
Sat. Apr. 12 - Iowa City, IA @ Hancher
Sun. Apr. 13 - Kalamazoo, MI @ Bell’s Eccentric Cafe - Back Room
Thu. May 8 - Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom
Sat. May 10 - San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
Mon. May 12 - Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
Tue. May 13 - Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
Thu. May 15 - Vancouver, BC @ Hollywood Theatre
Fri. May 16 - Victoria, BC @ Capital Ballroom
Sat. May 17 - Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
Thu. June 5 - Ottawa, ON @ National Arts Centre
Fri. June 6 - Toronto, ON @ Masonic Temple - The Concert Hall
The Weather Station Online
