Carving Canyons

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So I’ve kind of been back into The Mountain Goats, realizing that’s a good reminder, I bumped into him in the hallway, I gotta get back into them. Carving Canyons doesn’t quite function as a narrative song cycle, but the beginning of the record feels like the beginning of a romantic breakdown, a mix of hurt, surprise, and confusion. As I grieved – not only for a relationship, but for the world in the midst of a pandemic – I felt like my anger made people uncomfortable, but I came out the other side empowered and ready to step back into my light. L: When the pandemic started, I was actually living with my ex-partner, who was a farmer, like an actual organic farmer.

I’d almost say more to my producer and my musicians’ influence over recognizing that my voice can do those things, so they sort of nudge me in that direction. When I was listening to “Night Moves,” one of the singles – that could be a long lost Fleetwood Mac song, between the feel of it and your vocals in it. The singer looks into herself once again and shares other very personal lyrics that she managed to mould into very relatable words: “unlock the chains of love” is one of the best messages that appear in the album. The Stevie Nicks comparisons come easily, and “Night Moves” owes too much to Fleetwood Mac (though it’s quite good, whether it’s a knockoff or not).We carry a broad range of CDs and vinyl (7”/12” singles and LPs) and specialise in indie, alternative, rock, punk, metal plus a few other genres. Lissie was “broken open,” to borrow the words she sings on the title track, and she spent time grieving, healing, and strengthening her relationships with friends. With references ranging from Fleetwood Mac and Florence + the Machine to Bon Iver, it’s her most emotionally resonant and personal record.

I get overwhelmed sometimes about how much I want to listen to something new, and I just don’t get the chance sometimes. So aside from some one-offs in the last couple years and some socially distanced things I did during COVID, this is my first time really, ‘OK, we’re goin’ on tour. As she eloquently explained, at the time when she was writing the song, she wasn’t only grieving for her relationship, but for the situation in which the whole world was. And as much as it’s terrible to have to go through hard things, these are the things that create this landscape of our lives, and all of its texture and its edges and its depressions and its color, that rich pageant of life that we all experience. Never have I heard an album so easily able to shake me to my core, and yet so deeply cathartic and powerfully uplifting.

As Lissie rediscovers what makes her the person she is, she unveils her most authentic qualities: every bit of this song contributes to offer a full mosaic picture of Lissie’s way of seeing the world. After telling herself that she is free to feel whatever at any moment, the singer opens up about feeling sad again, asking herself more questions, trying again to find the tipping point, the big mistake, why it didn’t work out. I moved back to the Midwest in 2015, and I have 45 acres, and mostly it’s just me and my dog and a garden.

Carving Canyons is her latest studio album, following on from 2018 hit Castles and the re-release of previous material last year. The road back truly begins, though, when Lissie circles back to those blooming flowers that, in her words, “Literally come from sh!This is clearly a song that comes from the heart and it’s impossible not to consider it one of the best out of the album. The album’s sentiments are a reminder of the power of healthily embracing our most challenging emotions.