Rostam – ‘American Stories’ album review: Songwriting battles with production
Knowing your voice as an artist is one of the hardest things to perfect. Drenched in influences from contemporaries both past and present, it’s easy to get lost in a maze of pastiche that doesn’t at all fit the style of your music. Rostam certainly hasn’t fallen into that trap on American Stories and has moulded a sound that suits him well.
The Skinny: The former Vampire Weekend member has lifted many of the production techniques that have made his band so compelling and injected it onto his third solo album. String arrangements and spiralling chord sequences make up the backbone of the record, which is paired with tight processed drum beats to give off a slick production style.
All of this fits the ethereal nature of Rostam’s voice. Suitable for the album title, he is telling deeply intimate stories that expose the personal experiences of a first-generation Iranian-American watching the Western world change around him. Within that, there is an almost uniting universality to the songs that make them a quiet form of resistance.
‘Forgive Is To Know’ and ‘Feel No Way’ showcase all of this best. Slowing down the wheels of the A-side, Rostam’s voice almost bleeds over the melodies that he has written and sounds uplifted by the introduction of reverberated instrumental sections, be it horns or keys.
But there are times when all of that gets completely lost in the production. Importantly, simple ideas are drenched in techniques that have a habit of ripping the heart out of the artistic sentiment. ‘Back Of A Truck’ and ‘Hardy’ feel like the most obvious examples of this. Rather than becoming clever genre-straddling songs that blend indie, folk and country, the overly atmospheric production serves as a sort of heavy glue that’s forcing the sounds together when they simply don’t fit.
Luckily, this trend exists mostly on the A-side. Come the turn, Rostam sinks into the humility of the ideas that make the charming parts of this record so charming, and the overly drenched indie feel seems to fade away.
Standout Track: ‘Forgive Is To Know’
The Verdict: Ultimately, the lyrics deserve the sort of attention that you want to give this album. In fact, so does the instrumentation, which at times is truly brilliant and nuanced. But then an overly produced cloud comes sliding into view and ends up dampening the artistic brightness that is so clearly trying to shine through.
Release Date: May 15th, 2026 | Producer: Rostam | Label: Matsor Projects
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