Haunted by the past – and looking to a vengeful future.
With a fourth solo album it’s probably time to stop routinely mentioning that Juanita Stein fronted Howling Bells – particularly when considering that the band has been on hiatus for a decade and themselves released just four full-length albums. But, ‘The Weightless Hour‘ contains a fair amount of reflection and reassessing of the past, and one big chunk of that past for Juanita Stein is playing and touring in Howling Bells. Other aspects that impinge on the album’s songwriting include the pause of COVID, which Stein sat out in Tuscany with her family, and aspects of her orthodox Jewish upbringing of which she has says “you realise that it’s a story; that religion is a story. And though some of them are wonderful and creative and brilliant and actually, on a personal level, have shaped the perimeters of my own story telling abilities, they’re just a fiction we tell ourselves.”
The other main feature of the album is it’s stripped down nature – it’s not quite just Stein’s guitar and vocal, but it’s not far from it. And yet ‘Old World‘ has a sparkly Lee Hazelwood feel to it albeit coupled with lyrics offering a retelling of atrocities in Nazi occupied Prague. There’s no such sparkly charm to ‘Mother Nature’s Scorn‘ with a rough and ready guitar part fitting to the theme of a coming climate chaos, and there’s more grit on ‘Ceremony‘ which declares a disdain for someone too involved in their own lives: “you got your rules your rituals / got your own way to cope / you got addictions and prescriptions for the antidote“. When contrasted with ‘Daily Rituals‘ which states that “you don’t have to have all the answers / there’s pleasure to be had in the mysteries of life” it seems as if Stein is describing two ever conflicting aspects of personality – a free spirit and a self-medicating control freak. Maybe, but unarguable autobiography is captured on ‘The Game‘, which has an ethereal Stephanie Dosen feel to it, as Juanita Stein reflects on her earlier life of endless touring, late parties and a good time whilst heading for the elusive big time.
Across ‘The Weightless Hour‘ the sparse appeal can hit home – ‘Old World‘ is a great song – and a song like ‘Delilah‘ can deliver a Scott Walker on a limited musical budget feel, inspiring thoughts of empty carnivals and a distant calliope tune. And sometimes there’s a feeling that a song is still in a rough demo stage, and it’s crying out for just a bit more sound and vision.
