Buck Meek – ‘Haunted Mountain’ album review: A tender exploration of the meaning of love
Although he is best known for playing guitar in the indie folk outfit Big Thief, Buck Meek has been releasing solo music since 2018. His third effort, Haunted Mountain, is his best yet, blending country twangs with themes of love, family and home, where all are intertwined.
Discussing the record, Meek explains: “When you are in love, it inhabits your environment, animates the inanimate, charging everything around you with a sense of meaning, and not just new love; also love of many years.” Through the album, Meek explores love with a special tenderness, recalling romantic moments and acts of understanding that sound like they’ve been lifted from a fairytale. The natural imagery, rooted in mountains, valleys and lakes, where butterflies, dewdrops and flowers can be found, gives these tales of romance an earthly beauty, suggesting that true love should feel as natural as the elements surrounding us.
However, he also explores non-romantic love, such as the enduring bond between a mother and son on ‘Lullabies’, where Meek creates a dialogue between the two. The song is a standout moment, lifted by harmonious strings and gentle acoustic guitar. With lines from a mother’s perspective, such as “I’ve always loved you, and nothing else could come between”, Meek creates an emotionally charged family portrait, allowing his voice to float and linger with contemplation.
Meek also ponders family in ‘Cyclades’, where he explores storytelling, an art that appears to be of utmost importance to the musician. He tells of his father almost crashing into some elk and another instance where his parents narrowly avoided a collision with a truck. Emphasising the fragility of our lives, where one moment could alter everything – for better or for worse – the placement of the song among a collection of others about love suggests that we should hold on tight and truly appreciate what we keep so dearly.
The musician states that writing love songs that feel genuinely authentic is no easy task, explaining: “Sometimes it can feel like all the great love songs have already been written”. Perhaps, but that doesn’t mean that the subject is off-limits. While Meek sometimes veers into trite territory with lyrics such as “tell me how you got heaven in your eyes” or “kissing only with our eyelids/ butterflies entwining”, for the most part, Meek offers words that truly feel like they’ve come from the soul of a genuine romantic.
On ‘Didn’t Know You Then’, Meek leans into cliches wholeheartedly, with lyrics such as “I knew the moment that I saw you/ that my life would never be the same”, yet it’s hard not to get swept up in his words, which are accompanied by tender twinkling sounds and nostalgic, joyful guitars.
The final song on the record, ‘The Rainbow’, features lyrics taken from the diaries of Judee Sill, the late folk artist who passed away in 1979. “I tried to honour her, to be a vessel for her and write a melody and harmony that she might have written,” Meek explains. It’s a short, gorgeous track backed by gently paced instrumentation that allows Meek’s voice to sing Sill’s tender words, like “stars silent show moments beyond what we know”.
This line reflects much of the album’s sentiment, which is preoccupied with feelings like love and connection, which can often feel like a force significantly bigger than us, both beautiful and hard to understand. Meek explores this idea on ‘Secret Side’, singing, “I’ll never know, I’ll never know/ the secret life inside of you”. However, the multifaceted nature of love is what makes it so addictive and vital to the human experience.
Haunted Mountain is loaded with startling instrumental layers, invoking a mixture of retro country albums and modern folk. While the album sometimes lacks musical variation, the record certainly possesses a distinctive sound – one that invites the listener in with welcome arms. Meek’s vocal cracks come more often than perhaps necessary, yet they reassure us of the singer’s dedication to vulnerability and honesty.
Haunted Mountain is a strong, stunning record, sure to give Meek greater recognition as a solo artist.
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