Leif Vollebekk – New Ways
Secret City Records – 1 November 2019
After his last album was a finalist for the Polaris Prize, Leif Vollebekk felt the need to move on from self-reflection. New Ways is about being in each moment and feeling it to it’s fullest. And it imbues every decision on the disc, “Anything that I wouldn’t ever want to tell anyone – I just put on the record.” Recorded quickly, initially with just a drummer, capturing the moment was everything, “After each take, we’d go into the control room and listen back and see how it felt. If it didn’t feel right we’d do it again, or switch from piano to guitar, or change the drum sound, or the microphones.”
What emerges is a record that is far more physical, dealing with a particular time and place with no regret. The Way That You Feel opens with just electric piano and drums, every note wringing with emotion, while the testimony of Never Be Back “She’s my woman and she loved me so fine, she’ll never be back.” The verses spill out at a pace suggesting a myriad of moments that built the relationship have had an indelible effect.
Vollebekk does so much with so little, rarely is there more than a keyboard, bass, and drums, yet there’s never a sense of needing more instrumentation. His recounting of a Transatlantic Flight takes the time needed, building slowly spelling out, “You look good when you’re tired on a trans-Atlantic flight.” There’s a sense of intimacy to the track that almost feels too personal.
Similarly, Phaedrus offers the simple notion that “the way that it was is the way it should be.” It’s a moment frozen in time, perfect. Leonard Cohen has a line, “I hope you’re keeping some kind of record,” and New Ways is a collection of those instances.
I’m Not Your Lover covers incidents remembered and never to be forgotten, “you shake my spine until you sublimate it, pour the wine ‘til I can separate it from my brain.” The longing becomes real as the chorus adds, “I’m not your lover,” with the softly spoken, “anymore.” It’s a moment of desperation that’s almost too real.
On New Ways Leif Vollebekk has captured time in a bottle, distilling moments with a clarity that captures the essence of each experience. “I used to think, ‘This will be kinda like a Neil Young song,’ ‘This will be kinda like a Bob Dylan song,’” Vollebekk says. “I kinda ran out of people to imitate. And then there was just me.” Which is more than enough.
https://www.leifvollebekk.com/