For The Birds＜Red Vinyl＞

Neighbor Lady introduced their atmospheric, noir-colored alternative country-rock on the self-produced Maybe Later in 2018. For the follow-up, the band dig deeper into hazy, reverb-suffused ambience, adopting a more ghostly, vintage character on a set produced by Jason Kingsland (Belle and Sebastian, Courtney Marie Andrews, Lissie). Although they recorded the album just before pandemic shutdowns in 2020, while forced off the road they spent several months tweaking arrangements, doing re-recordings, reordering the track list, and generally perfecting and coalescing the ten songs. The resulting For the Birds levels up on the debut with its attention to detail. Having said that, the groups sound is best viewed through a wide angle, with subtle strings, echoey piano, moaning pedal steel, and distanced backing vocals filling in spaces between more-upfront wistful guitar countermelodies, a nodding rhythm section, and distinctively delicate and drawling, retro-styled vocals by Emily Braden (think Cults Madeline Follin crossed with Dolly Parton and tape delay). A song like "Feel It All the Time," with its haunting, diminished piano triplets, orchestral horns, tight vocal harmonies, and yearning melody, sounds of another time, if still a product of the rock era. Its dramatic qualities are foreshadowed by opener "For the Birds," a free-form instrumental introduction with outdoor sound recordings including birds, although most of the album is populated by structured rock rhythms. "Im with You" falls somewhere in between, taking the form of a melancholy, yodeling slow dance in 6/8 time. Those entries are contrasted by songs like the more assertive, uptempo "Takin U 4 a Ride," a catchy highlight that does nothing to elucidate atmospheres, even though it does bring Bradens vocals more to the fore. She even laughs, if in a derisive way, on the trippy "Penny Pick It Up," another hip-shaking outing. The musical climates of For the Birds finally do clear for closer "Too Far Gone," a tender solo acoustic track with more of the intros outdoor noise as well as plenty of reverb, as it brings the lights up in the theater without completely releasing listeners from its trance. ~ Marcy Donelson