Blue Tomorrows
Weather Forever
Floating in on airy, dream-pop clouds blanketed in glowing warmth and iridescent atmospherics, Weather Forever communes with the Cocteau Twins, as its ethereal light breaks through Beach House’s hazy morning fog. Blue Tomorrows is wide awake.
Not quite a bi-coastal proposition, as Weather Forever and its creator, songwriter/producer Sarah Neinaber, settled in Wisconsin after recording began in Portland, the third album from her Blue Tomorrows project was thrown together in piecemeal fashion, like arty mixed-media collages. There is, however, a soft, yet supple, harmony between futuristic and vintage, or simply more conventional, instrumentation, guided by the gentle manipulation and prodding of Neinaber’s tender vocals. She has a knack for beautifully cohesive songcraft and studio magic.
Using an assortment of machines to concoct fantastical pop experiments of surprisingly complementary sounds and textures, some with a slight, pleasing bend or shimmy to them, Neinaber — also part of the band Shady Cove — invites in layers of reverb, guitar translucence and acoustic spindle, electronic murmur, and synth breezes, all while catering to the whims of a mercurial upright piano. Dependable enough to carry the melancholic opener “Chasing Gravity” through gusts of alien noise, its delicately struck keys also add a light, powdery bounce to a touching and bittersweet “Owl Creek Blues” and tether the haunting Hawaiian glide of “Halo” to a dark, empty beach.
While the wintry “Knowing Everything” takes a quiet, reflective walk on a snowy, lonely evening, the slow, spinning wheel of “Nothing Free” eventually fades out, vanishing in a windy whoosh. The peaceful “Colorado” is a kaleidoscopic, mutating pop wonderland, its colorful flourishes tempered by an ending that feels increasingly sad, as if Neinaber knows she must go away for a while. Oceanic shoegazing waves crash into “Santa Cruz (Memory Blues),” before a candied synth-pop melody emerges from the surf and drifts into the title track that closes the breathtaking Weather Forever, as thoughtful meditations on life’s vagaries, escapist yearning, and meaningful recollections are embedded throughout. Eternally yours, Blue Tomorrows.
