Buck Meek: The Mirror album review – Light touch beauty
Likeability wins the day on the Big Thief band member’s fourth solo outing
There’s a school reunion vibe about Buck Meek’s fourth solo album (and his second with major label 4AD) as he joins longtime producer James Krivchenia and welcomes a cohort of regular collaborators, friends and family members along for the ride. The latest from Big Thief’s co-founding member bears the hallmarks of a relaxed experiment after a long campaign with his rent-paying band, who released their sixth studio album late last year. It’s arguably a Big Thief album in everything but name (Adrianne Lenker even shows up on backing vocals), except perhaps in the consciously narrow focus of its ambition.
Relationships are the central theme here; not the first flush of love, but the contentedness of routine living (‘I try to write to contain my life/to love my wife,’ trills Meek in ‘Demon’). Although dipping its toes in metaphysics, Meek’s lyrics have a lightness of touch. His 70s rock’n’roll posture adds some edge to the twee pitch of his vocals, with tones of Lennon and Clapton breaking through with the air of a crate digger riffling through his record collection.
‘I’ll try to write a song that is not for others’, he sings on ‘Heart In The Mirror’, which gets to the essence of this insular collection. These are time and motion studies of Meek’s humdrum existence told in winsome style, breezing by inconsequentially. An amuse-bouche, then, but nonetheless a pleasant addition to Big Thief’s knotted world of diversions and side projects.
The Mirror is released by 4AD on Friday 27 February; Buck Meek tours until Saturday 21 March.
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