Lovers
Fri Aug 19
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison
Lovers bum me out more than nearly any other band in my CD collection—and considering my loyalties, that’s quite an incredible feat. Haunting my stereo for the better part of three years now—Lovers are one of those seemingly random, semi-secret musical finds that, because of its (perhaps misplaced) air of general obscurity, has been all the more prized. But with Lovers’ leading lady Carolyn Berk recently setting up camp in Portland, I have the sinking suspicion that my quiet little secret may soon be officially out.
Synonymous with Portland-by-Boston-by-Athens vagabond Berk, Lovers is music of near-nullifying despair—the kind we tend to pack away with our sweaters during these summer months, but which makes for the perfect “Seasonal Affect” soundtrack for the rest of the year. Over the course of two full lengths for the Elephant 6-associated Orange Twin label (2002’s Star Lit Sunken Ship and 2004’s The Gutter and the Garden), Berk has crafted a surprisingly powerful discography considering her well-worn subject matter—mainly sentimental, satisfyingly literate studies of quiet, despondent self-involvement. It’s all songs of love and loss, hope and hopelessness, and glorified nostalgia—and yes, it’s sad as shit. But with lyrics as painstaking and consistently powerful as hers, who would want it any other way? Then again, I might just take inordinate pleasure in smart, relentlessly bleak pop music.
If Berk’s last album—the Georgia sun-kissed The Gutter and the Garden—was any indication however, there may be a certain relief in sight. Expanding her vision with a sprinkle of conditional optimism, Berk’s most recent songs are slightly less spirit crushing—minor becomes major with more regularity, etc.—just enough, I imagine, so that her mother doesn’t start to worry. The record’s serviceable arrangements border at times on adult-contempo, and I’ve heard Berk’s singing voice described as “Oberst-ian”—a comparison that I might be tempted to corroborate did it not turn my stomach so. But these misgivings are, more than anything, probably just my futile, egocentric attempts to keep Lovers my little secret. Good luck with that.