(above photo by Matt Stranger)
We can all agree that about eighty percent of holiday music is bad, right? The other twenty percent isn’t outstanding either, it just serves its purpose. As a new generation gains control of their own destinies, they also gain control of their traditions; it’s time for new holiday music. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to destroy Brian Setzer’s Christmas CDs, discontinue my fandom of Bob Seger after hearing his rendition of The Little Drummer Boy, or set my radio on fire when I hear the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Don’t even get me started on my relationship with Adam Sandler’s The Hanukkah Song. There are good solstice jams out there (which we’ll be featuring next week), but for the most part the landscape of seasonal music is pretty flat. Luckily the new album by one of our favorite musicians, Amo Pitsch of Tenement and Dusk, is the perfect alternative this year.
Released last week-ish, Lake Effect is Pitsch’s homage to December in the Midwest. the album is a great success for an already-prolific songwriter; laced with stories outlining the sentiment of shoveling your driveway, or Christmas spent far away from those you love. Among the many reasons listeners will enjoy Lake Effect, the LP also features Pitsch’s writing style in full effect, not playing victim to cliché or pandering to hopeful new listeners. While the album will garner Pitsch and the Crutch of Memory cohort new fans, Lake Effect is clearly a record written for those that are already fans of his work. The record does make strides that past Dusk or Tenement albums have not; utilizing string sections, a plethora of percussive accompaniment (sleigh bells!), and leaving behind the noise segments.
Lake Effect opens with the key track Three Plus Six that paints a picture of cabin fever days in early winter. Over a single acoustic guitar, the soft, honky tonk rhythm sets the stage for the rest of the album genuinely; the only way Pitsch has ever done things. It’s on the next song, Empty Box to Hold when the holidays become a focal point. “The gift you never got, was love above all else” he sings, making the fair point that the holidays aren’t always what we expect them to be.
The next track listeners will enjoy on Lake Effect is the song Snow Day; a quiet nostalgia trip on one of the better parts of winter. The song includes the above mentioned string section performed by Dusk’s Julia Blair. “Lift your eyes up to the sky, snow day is just for you and I, quiet, frigid, night” is the chorus and comes across beautifully.
It should be stated that Lake Effect is by little means a Christmas album but more so a winter album. If the entirety of Lake Effect were Christmas songs, it wouldn’t be as appreciated as it is. One could argue that the eleven track LP is loosely a concept album, but even by those standards, it’s a loose concept. Track six, Shiny Things to Stop Your Tear, is a good example of that. The meaning of the song is up for debate but to this writer, it’s about the holidays being a time not to focus on your woes.
It’s X-Mas (Today) as well as the title track that follows, are what give Lake Effect its charm. What else is there to say about Christmas that hasn’t already been said? It’s better to not say much at all Pitsch understands and relies on repeating the hook “It’s Christmas Today” for the majority of It’s X-Mas (Today). This is also the only song that features the electric guitar; an element not shied away from on past Crutch of Memory recordings. Lake Effect the song, Is the track that resembles Pitsch’s past work most, probably why it’s one of our favorites at HOAT.
So as we stand here; a third of the way through winter, in the middle of Chanukah, and still facing Christmas and New Year’s Eve, it’s not too late to start a new tradition while still observant of older ones. In the past, winter has symbolized death but Amos Pitsch’s Lake Effect thinks otherwise. While global warming shortens our winters drastically, we need to appreciate snow while we still get it and Pitsch’s solo debut is the flawless soundtrack for doing so.
Click here to watch the video for Lake Effect, and click here to read our interview with Tenement earlier this year.
– By Mike Metcalf
Hell of a Thing 