Prior to The Future his most recent outing was last year’s solo record And It’s Still Alright, a collection that dialled down the bombast in the wake of a divorce and the death of a central collaborator in producer Richard Swift. ![]() Rateliff, whether he likes it or not, tends to ruminate on things. ![]() ![]() “I’m like, am I actually just talking to myself, or am I trying to project onto the listener?” “I mean, I feel like the narrative on that song in particular changes from time to time when I listen to it,” he says. “I’m afraid to admit that it’s catching up to me too.” Fittingly, he’s still not sure exactly where he stands on this knife-edge. “I’m afraid that the weight of the world is catching up with you,” Rateliff sings at one point. On Survivor Rateliff finds the common ground between the two states, kicking things up a gear with a percussive, rafter-shaking hook that’s more Imagine Dragons than Crosby, Stills and Nash. The Future, his new record alongside his band the Night Sweats, is a pandemic piece that, from its title on down, funnels the uncertainty of the time into songs that try really hard to convince us that things will probably be fine in the end.ĭriven on by a grandstand vocal performance – all deadpan melody, riffs on Bob Dylan and Nina Simone, and gruff emotion dredged up from way down inside – the album is at turns very slick and reassuringly down home. By October, the upstairs rooms at the house were habitable, and at that point the wheels were turning out in the studio, too. “I was only gone for 10 shows and came home and I had to move into my garage,” the Americana star says with a rueful laugh. READ MORE: “It would be weird if you had no self-doubt about what you do” Courtney Barnett on putting self-criticism aside and leaning into the mystery….When he closed up the house he’d bought a couple of autumns earlier, just outside Denver, Colorado, he left it in the hands of workers who’d spend the following months remodelling it, bringing the living quarters in line with another area of the property that had received more of its care and attention up front: his home studio. Watch his performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert below, along with a 2013 Rateliff performance from the Paste archives, and revisit our recent interview with the artist here.As Nathaniel Rateliff pulled away from his place to head out on tour in February of last year, he knew that there were changes coming in his life. Rateliff’s album And It’s Still Alright is out now and his sold-out North American tour starts March 3. This album encapsulates two milestones in Rateliff’s life journey, and we can hear the inner peace he’s unraveling in these experiences. His focus expanded then, and the project became a reflection of the hope and new perspective born from struggles like these. He’s been through a divorce since his last studio release, and those emotions are definitely present.Īnd It’s Still Alright was originally centered around Rateliff’s crumbling relationship, but the subject matter shifted when Rateliff’s longtime friend and producer, Richard Swift, died in 2018. His voice is low and hearty, but when he slides up to a folk-shout to wash us in anguish, the change in pitch is chilling. The honesty in his voice while he tells a painful tale is moving. Rateliff’s performance features beautiful melodies from his acoustic guitar, a keyboard and a four-piece string section. The chorus bleeds with sentiments of devotion and endearment: “Are you just too old? Or too young to carry? / Time stands in a duel, I stand for you.” “Time Stands” is a vague, yet soulful love story that seems to have gone awry. ![]() The song appears on Rateliff’s new solo album, And It’s Still Alright. Tuesday night, Nathaniel Rateliff performed his song “Time Stands” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
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