Northern Weather’s Debut album “A Shade of Melancholy”

Ohio-based Midwest Emo/Punk band Northern Weather released their debut 11 song album “A Shade of Melancholy” today (February 4th).

The album opens up with the first song “Forgive and Forget”; crisp pop-punk guitar sounds matched with lyricism more akin to emo music. Right out of the gate the lead singer (Robert Keller)’s voice in the mix cuts straight through the otherwise very full instrumentals as he narrates through the song. Towards the end of the song, there’s a build towards the bridge that is full of energy and I could already see being really fun if I were to see it live. Being able to point out the most fun parts of a live show just by listening to the studio track is pretty fun, and shows just how much energy is behind Northern Weather.

The next song, “Epilogue” is a 46 second instrumental track. This makes the song feel like it was intended to be the second part of “Forgive and Forget”. The spacey and distant sound of the guitars makes the song feel like an afterthought; like the credits should be rolling during this instrumental period. Because of this, the choice to name it “Epilogue” but place it as the second song is really interesting. The clash between being effectively named “to conclude” and assisting in opening the album is a really funky contrast.

After the instrumental, “End of Page” jumps directly into a high-energy tempo that doesn’t stop until the song is over. The lyrics in this song are very akin to Midwest-Emo writings— as Keller sings about holding on to crumbs of happiness in the face of whatever’s coming ahead. As soon as the song begins the lyrics “The impending doom / seems distant when you’re in the room / so let’s keep laughing” paint the conversation as “things aren’t great but they’re easier when you’re here with me” — which is a very relatable feeling. But the next lyrics add an unsure feeling to the tone of the song; “don’t ask me where are we in a year / the future seems so unclear / I wanna be happy / so let’s be happy”. “End of Page” really feels like a song of fleeting romance; the kind of love where nothing else matters but the now— regardless of how long that’s going to last. As the narrator sings about how far the future will carry his partner away from him, and grappling with the temptation to ask them to choose to stay with him instead of going out and experiencing all the world has to offer, it becomes clear that this relationship (however lovely it may feel) is going to come to an end soon , whether they like it or not.

Skipping ahead a bit to the fifth song on the album, (and the first single released in connection to “a Shade Of Melancholy”), “Neal Says He’s a Viking” takes another stab at the incredible vulnerability shown prior in the album. The energy of this song is more pissed off than before; the true aftermath of a breakup has finally hit. With lyrics like “going over every word that you said / till they’re ringing out in my head / trapped behind my lips / flowing out through your fingertips”, this song perfectly describes how it feels to recount on a conversation where you didn’t get to say everything you needed to. The frustration is still there, and it almost feels worse as you play it back in your mind. Northern Weather does a really good job of portraying the back and forth of an argument; The levels of anger and frustration deep through in every section of this song. The chilled down instrumental part a little over halfway through the song both gives listeners a nice breather to break up all the anger, and sets up for a perfect bridge about being over the entire situation, and emotionally exhausted from feeling mad about it. Plus I’m a sucker for a good isolated vocal section, and when the world stops and Keller sings “don’t worry about me, i’ll be fine!!”, every part of me wanted to be screaming that back while watching it live.

“Old Fashioned (Tom’s Recipe)” starts much calmer than any song we’ve seen before on “A Shade Of Melancholy” — beginning with just far away, twinkly guitar that grows to add a stable drum beat before quickly jumping into the incredible energy we’ve become accustomed to with Northern Weather. This song is the one in which the band named the Album after; which becomes clear as the words “the day is a lovely Shade Of Melancholy / Start the morning with a shot of whiskey in my coffee” are thrown out across aggressive instrumentals. The interesting thing about this song is that after building all of that high energy aggression, it cuts sharply and leaves only ambiance, and a bright toned guitar solo. The ability to build to such full and energetic sounds and chill out to allow for more hollow space multiple times in one song (and do so successfully) is really impressive. When the vocals return to this song it’s almost an entirely different piece; stripping all the anger away, leaving something so vulnerable and crazy reminiscent of a Midwest Emo song.

After “Old Fashioned (Tom’s Recipe)”, the entire album takes on a whole new feeling. The anger has melted away, and what’s left is resilience, bright tones, and the belief that things will get better. In “Beach Episode” the narrator takes accountability for his misplaced anger, and returns to assuring the other party that there is a future beyond all of the turmoil they’ve experienced, even if it won’t feel quite the same as before. This turning point in the album (both content wise and instrumentally) makes the album feel much longer than it is; as if the listener has been learning and growing as it’s been playing. That kind of feeling is one of my favorites— like when you read a book and feel like a different person by the end of it. With the variety in sound, emotion, and energy in this album; it’s easy to forget where we even started in the first place.

The second to last song, “Find Yourself” really exemplifies the feelings of being lost that come from a breakup without closure. There’s a constant longing for how things were before everything fell to shit, regardless of how unhealthy or imperfect it actually was in the moment. It’s like looking into the past with rose colored glasses. Keller sings “i know that you clearly didn’t want to stay / or be here anyway / so maybe I’ll just say Goodnight / goodbye” and we can feel him physically grasping to form his own closure in the end of this. The song ends with “when you find yourself / maybe you can come and find me” — which really hits home if you’ve ever experienced a situation where every party involved hopes that the break up isn’t a final goodbye; as if there’s a lingering hope that their paths will cross again.

The final song, “Time and Distance” leads in with more Midwest emo twinkly guitars before growing into heavier guitar tones that call back to the beginning of the album. The singer describes what it’s like to be lying to yourself about the inevitable to make the “now” last as long as possible. The heaviest line in this song for me is “The hardest part of growing up / is picking your fights and knowing when to draw the line” — which is a lesson that nobody wants to have to learn. The hardest part of becoming an adult and setting your own boundaries is understanding when you need to stand your ground; even when you know the result of you doing that isn’t going to be the one you wished for.

The song closes with an insane hodge-podge of callbacks to each song that came before, layered over each other, canon style, and fading out into isolated versions of some of the most recognizable lines from the album. These lines fly past the listener like the closing credits scrolling down the screen. As you listen it’s almost like you can visualize the flashbacks to each song, where we were all at, and how it felt. Not only does this do an incredible job at tying the whole thing together, but if really fills the listener with all of the emotions of this album all at once. This ending was really done so successfully that my jaw dropped the first listen through.

My first impressions in the beginning of this listen were that it would be a fun, high energy punk inspired album. But “A Shade of Melancholy” is worlds more than that. Yes, it is high energy, and yes there is frustration and anger there. But there is also so much vulnerability, honesty, and rawness that I hadn’t prepared myself for. Overall I think this debut album is really fresh, interesting, and pretty special. We’re very glad it ended up on our radar and think you should definitely check it out.

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