Cassette Review // The Clearwater Swimmers "Seasons"
The sound on this cassette is dreamy rock n roll with higher pitched vocals, yet still soothing. I am taken back to a time when it was the early 2000's and perhaps someone from Tooth & Nail might have sounded like this, but I'm also thinking of labels like Deep Elm and Polyvinyl. One of the artists which I really think I hear coming out in this is New End Original, though I feel like there is also a closer comparison I just can't quite put my finger on.
Throughout these five songs a story is told of the seasons. As the first song has lyrics such as "I greet you like a season / What branches have reason" while there is also a later song on here called "Branches". Though the cassette might suggest otherwise, "Branches" is the fourth song overall on here (the first song on Side B as well) with the song "Radio" closing out the whole cassette in a sort of nostalgic way.
During the song "Radio" the lines that hit me sing: "Radio Flyer carries / All of the things that make me / Getting hard to pull it through". We have a few key moments in our lives where we're shaped by things and one of those moments which has always stuck with me came from the short-lived Will Arnett series called "Flaked". In this, a character (played by the wonderful Shawn Hatosy) explains to the Will Arnett character the idea of baggage.
In the show, it's about thinking of your life as being you trying to get a boat across a lake, or just from one place to the next. And as you're rowing your boat, all of that baggage that you have emotionally (not physical items, but things like guilt and grief and regret) is in your boat like baggage and it's weighing you down. It's making it more difficult for you to row, so you have to work harder than other people who don't have that. You can do with that idea what you will, but it is interesting to think about in the context of the boat being the little red wagon in this song.
The Clearwater Swimmers remind me of that time when music had a purity about the sound and would tell stories that could make you feel nostalgic for being younger. But back then, I was in my 20's thinking about my childhood. Now I'm older and thinking about being in my 20's. Still, no matter your age, this should hit with you on some level as there is a lot to relate with here not just in the nostalgia and grief but also nature and our memories.
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