Editor’s Note: Our new, recurring “Albumism Recommends” series aims to shine a bright light on our favorite albums of the past, with an emphasis on the records that arguably never achieved the widespread or sustained attention they rightfully deserve. As you’ll see below, unlike our longer-form feature articles, we’ve intentionally kept the accompanying commentary to a minimum, so as to allow the great music to speak for itself.
We hope that you enjoy discovering (or rediscovering) these musical treasures and if you like what you hear, we encourage you to spread the good word far and wide so that others can experience these under-the-radar classics as well.
ARTIST: Now, Now
TITLE: Threads
RELEASED: March 6, 2012
LABEL: Trans Records
NOTABLE TRACKS: “Oh. Hi.” | “Prehistoric” | “Thread”
BUY: Bandcamp
Threads is a warm fuzzy blanket, like whispers under the covers, like a nuzzle against your ear. I first heard this Minnesota band when I was living in Minneapolis—“Prehistoric” came on Radio K when I was driving—and I knew I was going to have a long-term relationship with this band. Cacie Dalager’s vocals are sweet without being twee, and the sonic dreamscapes she creates with drummer Bradley Hale and co-guitarist Jess Abbott alternate between sleepily introspective and shimmeringly bombastic.
“Prehistoric,” the album’s most standout track, is about romance going wrong (“It may be different now, but the pattern won’t wash out) and it’s one of those songs that burrows under your skin because it’s about so much more than the sum of its parts. “Oh. Hi.” is ticking and flirtatious (“You could come into my room tonight”) as the narrator reflects on coming out of a long dry spell. And, finally, “Thread” is about another pattern that’s hard to break, a wailing, danceable, head-bopping ray of hope (“A hint of light in the dark / Only enough to keep from giving up”).
Threads is a quintessential Minnesota album—with lots of ice and snow and winter imagery—that also captures the fumbling strangeness of love in your 20s—the way it can stop time and also speed it up, so that for a moment you gloriously lose the thread.
As an Amazon affiliate partner, Albumism earns commissions from qualifying purchases.
LISTEN:
WATCH:
