“Do you keep in mind?” are Fred Thomas’ first phrases on Window within the Rhythm—and the subtext for each lyric that follows. Are you able to recall each sound, sight, and scent from a 2002 DIY present, however not the place you left your keys 5 minutes in the past? Ever seek for your wretched pupil rental on Google Avenue View? In that case, you’ve obtained a possible Fred Thomas track in you. Although Thomas is often juggling three completely different tasks at any given time, he’s an Ann Arbor Proust on his solo information, swapping a madeleine for the shittiest slice of Backroom pizza. However his reveries are now not content material to just accept nostalgia alone as an endgame. On Window within the Rhythm, Thomas dares to ask why you keep in mind.
The album is an surprising coda to the indie-lifer trilogy Thomas ostensibly accomplished with 2018’s Aftering. These albums have been cobbled collectively like mixtapes, collaging twee-pop, folk-punk, Elephant 6 fan-fic, and summary electronica, to raised characterize the total scope of his pursuits. (One such mixtape turns up within the opening “Embankment,” the place he sings, “I made you a tape with the identical Squarepusher track on it 4 occasions, however not in a row/To imitate the best way a lot was haphazard/The abundance of magic in a fragmented movement.”) This time round, Thomas name-drops Joanna Newsom’s Ys as a major affect. His story checks out: There’s harp within the credit (by Mary Lattimore and Shelley Burgon) and the common track size is eight and a half minutes. However the fundamentals of Thomas’ sturdy songcraft haven’t modified; discursive, sung-talked verses simply take the scenic route earlier than jolting upright into tightly wound, Motown-inspired harmonies.
Thomas’ reminiscence transcends “photographic” and even “cinematic.” His most evocative writing but creates a sensual feast of all drabs—“the boring, bathwater-colored glow of each Adderall halo”; “dingy grey water in a vase”; “an unpleasant, unwashed tie-dye tee”; “mattress on the basement ground/Black sheets hung rather than doorways.” In any of these photos, the style of stale Pabst comes again so strongly, I felt the urge to pop three sticks of peppermint gum.
Like every seek for misplaced time, it’s all inherently indulgent, and although even informal lurkers may catch the references to his early emo outfit Lovesick, the lyrics sheet in all probability ought to’ve include annotations. But not a single second feels wasted, not when the entire level is to restage the formless stretches of a mid-20s that solely take form on reflection: perpetual Novembers and rusting springtime bicycles, days organized round perfunctory events and dead-end jobs. The supersized nearer “Wasn’t” is half suggestions drone, however even that call helps Thomas’ mixtape mindset by pushing Window within the Rhythm to precisely one hour. “Coughed Up a Cufflink” feels downright environment friendly, condensing the silence of an all-day trek by the Midwest into 10 mesmerizingly tense minutes. Halfway by, a short glimpse from the previous expands right into a full-on melodrama:
