THIS IS LORELEI - The Singer In My Band

A complex, even conflicted nature has led Nate Amos to explore territory that mirrors, in reverse, the project he shares with Rachel Brown under the name Water From Your Eyes. If the duo's predominant language is an art-pop shot through with synth-pop and math-rock leanings, what keeps the American songwriter up at night is a more linear, direct form of songwriting, one that digs its hands into country tradition.

That his talent has been praised by peers like Jeff Tweedy, Cameron Winter and MJ Lenderman comes as no surprise; if anything, it confirms that Nate Amos's decision to step into different shoes, under the name This Is Lorelei, is more a creative necessity than a production gimmick.
For a while the new project seemed to move uncertainly, scattering an indefinite number of EPs across Bandcamp, but with the release of "Box For Buddy, Box For Star" This Is Lorelei broke out of streaming-and-download anonymity thanks to an eclectic, unusual instrumental setup (drum machine and toy instruments chief among them).
With "The Singer In My Band" Amos takes yet another step forward, signing to Matador: here he reinvents himself as a country singer with a pop-rock soul and a gently on-the-road spirit, striking a balance between '70s singer-songwriters (Gordon Lightfoot and Townes Van Zandt are the first names that come to mind) and a more modern vision where War On Drugs meet Jackson Browne ("Billy Came Back").

On a quick first listen "The Singer In My Band" might seem devoid of surprises, but anyone who has already enjoyed the musician's previous work knows that the apparent straightforwardness of these songs conceals a complex weave of chords and arrangement choices that are anything but simple (evident even on the album's sole instrumental, "Nitro").
It's fascinating how, on the ambiguous "Hey Sarah Is It Gonna Rain Forever", Amos builds a lovely sequence of fingerpicked chords, then dresses its development in a string section of rare beauty that plays off the rhythm section in a swirl of chords that let the imagination drift.
From the great country singers of the past, the artist has inherited a gift for sketching characters and situations with a gripping, literate narrative style: the lively bluegrass of "Watching Heaven Fall" and the elegant country-roots of "Sailing (Your Baby's Down)" are brilliant examples of this.

The new This Is Lorelei album moves nimbly between alt-country ("I Will Eat My Heart In The Morning Light") and tradition (the title track) without ever slipping into routine — quite the opposite, delivering a couple of small gems of songwriting that are as free-spirited as they are introspective. There's an unusual, restless energy behind the intricate instrumental work of "Oh No Now My", a track driven by an obsessive rhythm and instrumental disturbances that underscore one of the album's darkest lyrics, and the rich, energetic guitar work of "The Kid With The Crown" is explosive, further widening the record's range of reference and hinting at a potential that, despite an already substantial catalogue, is sure to yield more surprises down the line — even for those who find the creative strategies of this intriguing "The Singer In My Band" somewhat predictable in places.

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28/09/2026