SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: LAND OF TALK – CALMING NIGHT PARTNER

Land Of Talk
Calming Night Partner
Dine Alone Records/Saddle Creek

Recorded on the heels of 2020’s acclaimed Indistinct Conversations, indie band Land of Talk has returned with a 4-track EP entitled Calming Night Partner, a collection of lush, atmospheric songs anchored by bandleader Lizzie Powell’s celestial vocals and buttressed by gentle guitar and touches of saxophone and French horn that create a rich, yet melancholy listening experience.

Opening track “Leave Life Alone” is a simple, spare song at the start that slowly builds upon its title phrase, spinning out lyrical variations that vacillate between half-hearted uncertainty (“I’ll leave life/I guess I’ll leave this life”) and more disenchanted discontent (“Living like I’m dreaming/like I’m seeing it all”). As it goes along, though, the urgency builds steadily and the song lifts off the ground in a swirl, leaving the listener hanging a bit by the time it ends, suspended in an incomplete motion.

It’s the second track and early single “Moment Feed” where the groove settles and the band succeeds the most. “Don’t you wanna hear my body talk?/Don’t you wanna feel that noise?” sings Powell evocatively as the song quickly establishes its quickened pace and rhythm, the drums and bass thumping along. Title track “Calming Night Partner” has some of the most interesting, poetic lyrics of the four. Somber and reflective, she asks “Was it a calming night partner, did you laugh ‘til the sun writes the sky?/Was it a knife-fight was it a lifetime?” each question abstract, yet full of implication.

The closer “Something Will Be Said” starts like a sad walk, with flares of horn that crystalize the heartbreak at the center of the song. “Something will be said,” she sings, “For me it will be true,” words that hint at misunderstanding and misinterpretation, two people seeing the same thing yet drawing different, conflicting conclusions.

In the end, Calming Night Partner is a nice addition to the Land of Talk catalogue, and “Moment Feed” in particular deserves some repeated play on your ears.

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