The Great Awakening

Description

Shearwater's seventh studio album, produced by the band and Dan Duszynski (Loma), reveals what its leader, Jonathan Meiburg, has been through. While the thunderous songs of the band's 2016 album Jet Plane and Oxbow (Sub Pop) were filled with fears about what the United States was becoming under the previous administration, Jonathan resolved to find a new approach for The Great Awakening. He felt desperate but did not want to create music that offered no hope. The Great Awakening is an immersive and soulful journey, composed of grand atmospheres and intimate landscapes, enhanced by field recordings made while writing his first book, A Most Remarkable Creature (Knopf, 2021), which received critical acclaim. The resulting 11-track album—anchored by his closely recorded voice, stranger and more urgent than ever—is what Shearwater has been striving to achieve for years: a journey into the unknown, embracing sadness and joy, beauty and terror.