No Lonesome’s new EP Am I What I’m Not?, out since October 15th, finds Chicago musician-producer Jeb Backe sharpening their mixed-fidelity palette into something bolder, punchier, and more restless. The project has always walked a curious line between folk, indie rock, and dusty country strolls, but here Backe leans into a more energized terrain without losing the loose, lived-in charm that made the early work so magnetic. The firm, unpretentious voice threads through handcrafted and ambitious arrangements. The EP stretches from internal unraveling to cosmic release, as it comes earned, from the sound of an artist still recording on their own terms, but widening the frame.
The opener, “Falls Apart,” sets things in motion with sparkly, upbeat guitar strums and a rhythm section that glistens without ever rushing the moment. The singer sings with an easy calm, like someone accepting that things break sometimes, and maybe that break makes room for something new.
Then “Foramen” expands the palette. Bright horns burst through the mix with a vivid, confident tone, while the low-end guitar ripples gently underneath like water lapping at a lake. It gorgeously contrasts the grandeur up top with the serenity below, while the steady vocals ground it all.
“Good Hurt” plays with its own oxymoron, drifting into a warmer, more suspended mood. The horns trail off like smoke, the guitar keeps a relaxed pulse, and the voice floats in the atmosphere, just inhabiting the grey area where sweetness and ache overlap.
Finally, “Great Eternal” swings upward with a jolly, organic energy. Catchy tapping percussion and breezy guitar strums move with an almost sunlit ease, while the vocalist sings melodically, bringing the EP to a gentle but uplifting finish.
No Lonesome’s Am I What I’m Not? earns it by simply being itself, and being better than before.
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Review by: Naomi Joan