Australian-by-way-of-Britain Juanita Stein has actually long drawn from American country on albums like America (QRO review), yet given it her own spin. For new record The Weightless Hour, she steps back from the twang and brings the room in.
Much of Hour feels like it is done in one of those giant, empty churches that Europe is littered with, echoing sad sweetness on the opener/title track, or bringing the wry haunt of the “Old World”. There are moments of Stein’s country ways, such as the glowing back-to-back trots of “Motionless” and “Daily Rituals”, not to mention the grand country jangle in “Ceremony”. But this is an album that embraces the size of spaces, while still feeling intimate like on the penultimate “Driving Nowhere”.
Whatever side of the pond you’re on, winter is both big and empty, snow falling on fallow fields, in this Weightless Hour.
