Hataałii – ‘I’ll Be Around’ album review: a creaking, crackling heartache gem
THE SKINNY: You can hear old America creaking under the weight of the new on Hataałii’s latest album, I’ll Be Around. It’s an apt title, too. You sense he has been around everywhere and everything—a figure perched on the porch of the precession of time, who has been here, there and everywhere, embracing heartbreaks and hardships, with nothing but a 40-deck of Camels, a Ford truck, and the side of his nose for company.
At 22, his dreary wisdom seems stupifying. It’s as though he’s been around longer than he is letting on, eg, the dawn of time. His latest distant and grunge-tinged record transmutes that wisdom in a strange way. Just as America seems to be reaching a bewildering fever pitch, that only registers as morose dissonance in his lo-fi country songs, while Hataałii’s deep, dark eyes just dart around his shed—minding his own home.
The album is strictly DIY and the fruits of that labour are its finest triumph. It might sound sparse and minimalist on the surface, dominated by a bipolar 12-string, but all the little Lap Steel details lingering beneath create a whole world. They beguile and captivate like the come hither of a dirt track blazing under the Midwest sun. You could drop an anvil into these dainty, doleful tracks and never live to hear it hit the bottom.
Much like Cindy Lee’s last album, Diamond Jubilee, it plays with the current paralysis of time, as we sit in the backwash of all that has gone before, and creates little vignettes from other worlds, other eras. That makes it hard to pick out a genre. Of course, there is a sense of lo-fi slacker indie, but there are also touches of haunted show tunes from yesterday, curious tunings that convey an acid folk sentiment, and smatterings of country at its least corny and most cutting. But above all, this seems to be woven finely together, occurring all at once in a filagree whirl.
The simplest parp of a synthy guitar sound will, for some reason, set you thinking about a 1980s dancehall, but then the echo chamber he chooses conveys a sense that the dancehall has had better days, the lyrics will let you know it has seen heartache and romance, too—and all of this from a couple of notes and a carefully constructed Cormac McCarthy-like line. Hataałii is a songwriter in a realm of his own. I’ll Be Around finds the Native American star at his most personal, and it is both crushing and captivating.
For fans of: Wondering about Rustin Cohle’s backstory and romanticising sheds.
A concluding comment by Rustin Cohle: “Sounds like you’ve got a lot going on.”
I’ll Be Around track by track:
Release: April 4th | Producer: Hataałii | Label: Panther Mountain
‘Surround Me’: For a beautiful bit of 12-string and a bed of self-taught Lap Steel and a voice that sounds like it’s coming from 30 years away, this introduction might be feathery, but it hits like a tonne of them. [4/5]
‘She Ain’t Coming Back’: The title is a pretty good indicator of the sodden darkness of the track. It’s more down in the dumps than a waterlogged football, and it feels like a sister incarnation of Mazzy Star. [4/5]
‘Let It Roll’: String instruments add further drama to the record’s now well-established solemnity. But a hint of a hit bassline can be heard through the tears, pushing things forward, heading towards healing. [4/5]
‘Somebody Else Has My Baby’: Yep, it ain’t getting any lighter. Press skip if you’re a fan of happiness. Stay if you like the idea of a country Terry Callier. [4/5]
‘Just Need You to Know’: A detached and distant howl—it is here where the Cindy Lee sentiment of analogue and digital colliding in a curious way can be heard most clearly. Clever, unique stuff. [4/5]
‘Seem Alive’: The midpoint marks a change of pace. A different echo chamber provides a jangly groove as the haunting subsides to provide memories of an ’80s dancehall. Like early INXS if they grew up in Twin Peaks. [5/5]
‘Set Me Free’: “Hello, this is Cormac McCarthy talking, I’m a little rusty right now.” [4/5]
‘When She Looks at Me’: A calmer and enter sound whisks up a moonlit valley. Ethereal and beautiful—an ode that came too late. [4/5]
‘I Tried’: A little maudlin interlude. It’s not the record’s best or most captivating moment, but it sustains the mood all the same. [3/5]
‘We Made Our Way’: A romantic melody, the sort that might have been on JJ CCale’s Naturally, sweetens proceedings as Hataałii finds himself looking back with a bit more fondness. [4/5]
‘Wait For You’: For some reason, the whole album might remind you of ‘Wicked Game’, in the best way, and this aching ditty might be the moment that dawns on you. [4.5/5]
‘Little Brother’: Things suddenly get a little Stagger Lee in this small town. Hataałii performs the track with confidence, drama, and an astoundingly characterful voice. [4.5/5]
‘I’m Your Man’: Another cut that is perhaps more about experimentally sustaining the mood more than anything else. [3/5]
‘I’m Down a Dirt Road’: A stirring assortment of bluesy instrumentation. Hataałii is an artist and a craftsman in the truest sense, and this signs off another opus in jaunty style. [4/5]
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