“Orphan” opens the record, with the songwriter reflecting on life after the death of his parents, singing “bring them back to me/I will forgive them/let them love me again,” which carries with it both the sweet sentimentality as well as the loss and absence of grief. And so it goes, for adults who’ve raised families and reached an age when their own parents are now gone, or growing less capable of life on their own. The passing of time is suggested in the “tick-tock” thump of “Landscape,” which is the inevitable situation of middle life, even for the artist who’s life task is creative expression, whether it’s “pushing words onto the page” or hoping for that efollusive “someday” when “we’ll walk as one.” In less complicated, less busily arranged songs, Tweedy’s haunted (Family Ghost), even as life continues to challenge (“Guaranteed”), and “things go wrong, but love grows stronger each day.”
It turns out the Warmer is a lovely addendum to the strong original collection of songs that made up Warm, as Tweedy’s songs feel a bit more back to basics, less busy with the effort to impress, and lyrically more transparent.
Brian Q. Newcomb
For more of Brian Q. Newcomb’s music reviews, check out The Fire Note
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