Weekend Intermission: Buck Meek (USA) – The Mirror (album)

Weekend Intermission is our regular feature where we look at an artist or band not from the Nordic countries, just to mix things up a bit.

Big Thief’s expert guitarist and backing vocalist Mr Buck Meek unleashes his spirited fourth solo album ‘The Mirror’ hot on the heels of his band’s latest last autumn.

Both his band Big Thief and Meek are prolific, there is no denying that, but the calibre of music is never less than consistently high. His solo stuff is related to his band’s but more acoustic, softer at its heart, a platform for him to genuinely explore his own vocal warbling – a wholly unique set of pipes if ever there was one.

This album kicks off wondrously with lead single ‘Gasoline’, a jostling, bursting, fitting opener to the album and to discovering Meek’s solo work.

‘Pretty Flowers’ is next, and there is an element of his work feeling somehow elegantly restrained, as though by holding something back, he speaks volumes. Meek’s voice is ever a curious affair, not an instantly gratifying voice, but a grower, both through his songs and in the emergence of his own unique vocal character that defines the man as his own singer and songwriter. There are moments on Big Thief records when his voice, when added to Adrianne Lenker’s, takes the songs to an even greater place.

Third single ‘Can I Mend It?’ wears its heart on its sleeve, and in all honesty, in the times we find ourselves in, this kind of honesty and humanity in music feels extremely welcome. There is something about Meek as both a man and musician that rattles and hums in his tunes, that comforts and converses with his listener. While lyrically it isn’t much new, it’s his way of opening himself up, showing simple and sweet sentiments in his music, that hits its target. The value is undeniable.

‘Ring of Fire’, the second single, then heaves into view, shuffling and again encircling with its reassuring warmth. These songs are sonic hugs, working much-needed magic.

There is also a sense of community and camaraderie in these songs, a small band assembled, less than Big Thief’s recent expansion but nevertheless symbolic of Meek’s approach to music as a device to unite, to bring together, to celebrate our existence. You feel that over the course of the record as one song bleeds into another that while it all feels rather similar, there is reassurance and comfort in that, in Meek knowing himself, his audience, what he can do so well.

Violent electric guitar solos on ‘Gasoline’ and ‘Demon’ are definite highlights, these key moments lifting the album’s energy greatly.

Openness, God, and love are recurring themes across the album’s tracks, and a listen feels like getting to know its creator better.

By the end, a little familiar as the tracks have become, it has lost some of the punch. However, here is a decent collection by a man who is far more than just the guitarist of one of the best bands in the world. His own work, as the title of one track and its mantra like lyrics reveal, contains the ‘soul feeling’ that not all can proclaim to possess.

NMC rating: 8/10

(Continues after the Spotify link)

Find him on:

Website: https://www.buckmeekmusic.com/