A welcome return that proves the band haven’t lost their touch after over a decade away.
While the last 11 years have felt long for all of us, they have felt even longer for fans of the Autumn Defense as they waited for a new album, but with “Here and Nowhere”, they are finally back. The duo, made up of joint lead vocalists with Wilco bassist John Stirratt and veteran musician Pat Sansone, is here once again to provide a reassuringly soothing, Laurel Canyon-style retro balm to help soothe weary souls.
“Old hearts / That knew right from the start / When they’re falling down / Look ‘round / Reach for what they found,” Sansone sings mournfully on the chorus of ‘Old Hearts’, a ballad, with a generous amount of French horn, that feels evocative of decades past without being twee. ‘Winter Shore’ shows that songs that are quite literal in their meaning aren’t always boring as Sansone sings of the time a bird journeyed from Russia to his hometown in Maine (“High tide in a falling rain / You look the same / And the image left of you / It appeared on a winter shore / A bird not known in this land”) against the rise and fall of some beautiful cello work from Austin Hoke.
‘Hearts Arrive’ and ‘In the Beginning’ see the band embrace 1970s powerpop, the dramatic flare to the choppy strings on the later giving shades of Supertramp at their best, as Sansone tells of a couple in love who aren’t necessarily healthy for each other: “We were so held together / Wrapped too tight / With no room for laughter / And no room for light / Sometimes love has a shadow / And love isn’t always right.” Featuring some lovely, meandering work from Sansone on nylon-stringed guitar, ‘Underneath the Rollers’ finds Stirratt wanting to give someone his all, even if he doesn’t always understand his feelings.
Ostensibly English folk-inspired, ‘More Than I Can Say’ features the most delicate piano work on the album, and Stirratt achieves some beautiful harmonies with Sansone’s backing vocals. “Dear one / Is there a way to show you how I feel? / The sun, the moon, the wind are nowhere near as real,” opens Sansone on the breezy ‘Love Lives’, a song that explores the mystery that is love. On the Stirratt-led vocaled and penned ‘Take Me Out of Your Mind’, things get a hint of the 70s again, this time a little more psychedelia than powerpop, and there’s a rip-roaring guitar solo provided by Sansone that’s fitting to the era, too. ‘Even Flowing Light’ has a suitably dramatic quality for an album closer, its rich chamber pop sound resonating as Stirratt speaks of an unseen presence who remains by his side.
On ‘The Ones’, Sasone sings of the fleeting impermanence of life and the losses that bring: “And the ones who were there to show the way / Where are they now? / And the things that we thought were here to stay / Where can they be found?” In an unpredictable world, at least the Autumn Defense is back with a sound as comforting as it is nostalgic, and goodness knows, that’s something needed now more than ever.
