I'm taking a step back to revisit an album from 2018 tonight: Samara Lubelski's Flicker at the Station. Samara is a multi-instrumentalist hailing from Soho who started her career as a violinist, but who quickly transitioned to guitar, bass, and cello- and in the process became a go-to studio musician for the likes of Thurston Moore, the Fiery Furnaces, and Body/Head’s Bill Nace, among others. Since her 1997 solo debut, In the Valley, Lubelski has become known for her prolific output as much as her skills as a musician. Flicker at the Station is her ninth LP, seeing her stick mostly to guitar and vocals to craft intricately layered, jangly, and somewhat avant-garde baroque pop with a whimsically nostalgic feel. The album was recorded in the German countryside, backed by her folk-pop pals and frequent collaborators, the Metabolismus. Flicker at the Station feels like Stephen Steinbrink without the distended melodies, Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society but with more exaggerated grooves, a softer breathing and more patiently indulgent transfiguration of Hall of Fame, and a more cautiously constrained, but still captivating, reconstitution of Stereolab. Whatever other comparisons I could strain from the font of my mind, the bare facts will remain the same, Flicker at the Station is simply lovely.
