Noah Gundersen - Lover (August 23, 2019) Album • Page 5

i will drive to your house to listen... its only 3 hours away lmao

 

I've only listened once, and it's a lot to take in. Ranges from songs that hearken back to old acoustic Noah, to very R&B-influenced stuff, to "All My Friends," which sounds like an uptempo 1975 jam. But I like it a lot. And I'm a lot less conflicted on it than I was with White Noise on first listen.

 

holy shit yes

 

he posted a clip of "All My Friends" on his IG story back when he was making it and it sounded awesome. Cant wait for that one!

 

So more of a collection of songs kind of album?

I couldn’t tell if album was going to have a running theme or vibe, but it sounds like he’s exploring musically still to broaden the “Noah sound”.

 

There's definitely a thematic throughline, and it's less all-over-the-place than White Noise, to my ears.

 

Also, I hope that "Lover" is the next track he releases, because that one is kind of wild. The chorus sounds HUGE.

 

White Noise felt like a cross section of different ideas and side projects Noah had going on. I really like most of the White Noise era, but it was all over the place, and I am happy to hear Lover has a throughline. Hopefully he releases lots of music again for the Lover era too.

 

The sequencing here is really interesting, in that he sort of switches back and forth between the more classic Noah stuff and the more out there stuff.

 

Favorite songs after a few listens?

 

Does it work or does it feel like two different EP’s combined?

 

Nah, it works.

 

The acoustic/singer-songwriter stuff is really hitting me hard on these first listens, because I just love that side of Noah and haven't gotten enough of it lately. So "Watermelon," "Audrey Hepburn," and "Wild Horses" are all early favorites for me, along with "Robin Williams."

But I love a lot of the 80s-leaning stuff, too, like "Lover," "Lose You," and "All My Friends."

I'm surprised at how many immediate highlights there are for me.

 

This is going to come out at a perfect time for me. Should be getting bar exam results that week or the week after, so it's good to have something to look forward to. I don't go back to white noise ofte at all, and pumped that you like this one a lot more. Anything you can share about themes?

 

Not a ton yet. It seems less high concept than the last record. More of a relationship record.

 

Also, someone said he was covering "The Scientist" on an IG story right? The opening lines of "So What" are a direct allusion to that song.

 

Craig, my hype levels are through the roof. this all sounds incredible.

 

Yeah, this is really fucking good. I was lukewarm on White Noise and tried really hard to love it because of how much the two albums that preceded it had meant to me. And it's still a good record that is about 50 percent great songs, but a bunch of it never clicked with me. I wouldn't say this "goes back" to what he was doing on Ledges and Carry the Ghost. If anything, it's marrying his folk/singer-songwriter roots with the pop/R&B stuff he's obviously most interested in listening to. But it feels a little more honest to me, and more true to who he is as an artist/what his talents are. I think people will love it.

So that's one great album called Lover coming out at August 23. I really hope the other one is as much of a pleasant surprise to me, because Noah and Taylor have actually followed weirdly similar trajectories this decade for me, in terms of their progression and my decline of really loving their music. Ha.

 

So glad he's coming back to Norway in January, bought tickets like 10 mins ago. And I can't fucking wait for this album, especially after your comments Craig.

 

The only thing I could possibly anticipate more than this is a new Bon Iver record. I’m going to have both at the same time. Ughhhhhhh

 

it’s gonna be a goooood fall.

 

Wasn't completely sold on "Lover"until the final minute. Whoa.

 

Yeah I dig it; didn't hit me as hard as Robin Williams, but still into it

 

This one did way more for me on my first listen than “Robin Williams” did. Awesome.