The New World. Shearwater

The New World is out for some time already. The release came during my holiday. That often makes it hard to catch up on and pay attention to the album after my return. There's simply too much music. Attention it should have deserved at the time. I picked up the album anyway during the past weeks and found myself playing it regularly and liking it more and more. The most surprising thing? How come that somehow the final song's story was familiar to me without having heard it ever before; as far as I'm aware. But, let's start at the beginning.

Shearwater can be found on this blog from the very beginning. All the albums I have listened to through the years I liked at the time, but they are never among my absolute favourites nor played through the years, like other albums get played or are praised in my end of year lists. I think that has to do with the fact that Shearwater albums all sound modest. They are not huge attention grabbers, but exercises in moods and atmospherics.

The New World is no exception, but is, so far, also the exception. Shearwater's latest album has crept up on me over the past two months. Slowly but surely, it made a bigger and bigger impression, but please do not ask me why. I honestly do not know what makes the difference with the albums that came before. Jonathan Meiburg's voice is the same highish, modest voice as always. The music is unobtrusive as always. Almost more late night jazz at the diner kind of music than anything else.

What caught my ear, is the lush arrangements of some of the songs. The way both atmospherics and instruments meander through a song is so masterful. It really creates this lush kind of mood where my ear is caught on a host of melodies that support both the essence of the song and Meiburg's voice. The band has made use of a host of musicians and instruments. The result is an astonishingly wide kind of music that makes The New World a joy to listen to. It is Shearwater and then some more. This most likely is the explanation of my extra shine to The New World.

This is an album to submerge into. Just lay yourself down and let the music wash over you. Allow it to carry you away to wherever it wants you to go to or you want it to take you. All these details to enjoy and my bet is you will hear another detail each time you allow the album in.

It all ends with a spoken word song, 'You And Your Dog'. It tells a story of a walk down the beach, with the sea missing due to an extreme low tide, somewhere in the past of the protagonist. A story not unlike on Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' last album 'Wild God', where a phone message is played over music. The music is like the sea crashing into the beach, softly but ongoing forever. The female voice is Laurie Anderson's. A beautiful ending to The New World.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

You can listen to and order The New World here:

https://shearwater.bandcamp.com/album/the-new-world-2026