Off Off On

たおやかにスウィングするUKフォークの至宝
ザ・ナショナルからシャロン・ヴァン・エッテンまで虜にするディス・イズ・ザ・キット最新作!!

英国ウィンチェスターに生まれ、現在パリに拠点を置くシンガー・ソングライターのケイト・ステイブルスが率いるプロジェクト、ディス・イズ・ザ・キットが2017年のベスト・アルバムの呼び声高い前作『Moonshine Freeze』に続く『Off Off On』をリリース。
ザ・ナショナルのアーロン&ブライス・デスナー兄弟にその才能を見出され、シャロン・ヴァン・エッテンやエルボーのガイ・ガーヴェイからも称賛される才媛の＜Rough Trade＞移籍後2作目となる本作は、ボニー・ライト・ホースマンやマズとして活動するジョシュ・カウフマンをプロデューサーに迎え、アルバム制作はザ・ナショナルのアルバム『I Am Easy To Find』(2019)の制作やツアーに参加したことがきっかけとなってスタート。先行公開された「This is What YouDid」をはじめ、これまでのシンプルかつ温もりのあるフォーク・サウンドと、ステイブルスの柔らかい歌声はそのままに、豊かな光を放ち、人生の鼓動や流れに鋭く敏感な生命力溢れる全11曲を収録。潮に逆らって動き、嵐に逆らって立つ、まるで生命線のように感じさせるまさに"On"なコンテンポラリー・フォークの名盤となっている。

Under the banner of This Is the Kit, Britains Kate Stables has amassed an impressive catalog of thoughtful, sometimes idiosyncratic folk songs whose winding melodies are often set to spiky rhythms and offbeat time signatures. After breaking out with 2015s Aaron Dessner-produced Bashed Out, she found a home on the Rough Trade label, which helped raise her profile even higher with 2017s winsome Moonshine Freeze. Off Off On, This Is the Kits fifth album overall, finds Stables and her crew working alongside New York-based producer Josh Kaufman (Bonny Light Horseman, Muzz) on another warmly literate and subtly complex collection, essentially picking up where its predecessor left off. Largely written during a 2019 tour with the National, there is an undercurrent of restlessness in this material, with Stables observations of life in motion complimented by skittering percussion, agile fingerpicking, and colorful horn lines dancing across the stereo field. Even the albums title itself speaks of the herky-jerky nature of touring, the hurry-up-and-wait mentality of racing to make a soundcheck only to spend the next five to six hours in the stationary limbo leading up to showtime, then repeating the whole cycle the next day. Without the routines and demands of domestic life, this type of travel allows plenty of space for anxious minds to wander, a theme hammered home on the cyclical This Is What You Did. Examinations of conflict and the passage of time also weigh heavily, especially on tracks like No Such Thing and Slider, while the gorgeous closer, Keep Going, translates time into movement with a hard-won poetic grace. Although This Is the Kit is ultimately Stables project, regular collaborators like bassist/singer Rozi Plain, guitarist Neil Smith, and drummer Jamie Whitby-Coles once again bring her detailed music into focus, locking in together like a single organism while her husband, multi-instrumentalist Jesse D. Vernon, further paints the canvas in earthy hues. In spite of its musical intricacy, This Is the Kit remains a relatable portal into the human experience and Off Off On is as appealing as anything Stables has ever released. ~ Timothy Monger