Juanita Stein - The Weightless Hour

’The Weightless Hour’ sees Stein join forces once more with long-time collaborator, the producer Ben Hillier (see also: Depeche Mode, Doves, Blur, Elbow). After originally teaming up for 2020’s Snapshot, Stein’s third record, which was built from collected fragments of grief following the loss of her father, it was Hillier’s penchant for minimalism – his instinct for risk-taking while stripping sounds back to their gleaming bones – that aligned with her vision for her fourth project.

In removing most instrumental additions beyond the guitar (and you will notice there are no drums on the LP), with ‘The Weightless Hour’, Stein made a subconscious choice to make the project entirely her own. In the space freed by the stripped back instrumentation, her storytelling bleeds freely like watercolours across a blank page. The album is an intensely human document with a profound sense of dignity. A record on which Stein has found that exploring a more restrained side can yield work that is armed with experience and yet is all the lighter for it, where your attention isn’t demanded and yet is effortlessly claimed. Every sound, every choice, has earned its place.

The roots of the album can be traced back a decade, to when Stein was a new mother. The title track carries the fortitude and impossible lightness of a spider web; as a teenager, being heard meant earning approval, but now, it’s about building something bigger than herself. Now, with two daughters, Stein is drawn to the idea of legacy and sharing the fruits of experience.

“Old World”, meanwhile, is a reckoning with her Jewish ancestry; while its thematic companion, “Carry Me”, sees Stein capture a serenity that was only possible during the suspended reality and forced stop of lockdowns. “The Game” is a reflection on the heady days of Howling Bells, a glimpse into the rearview mirror of never-ending nights and adventures – the invincibility of youth. But it’s also about youth’s naïveté: “Sitting high on top of the world /Baby, you were just a little girl / Now you’re a woman, have you learned, it’s just the game”. “Driving Nowhere”, meanwhile, is a haunting recollection of a relationship without direction or destination, which sees Stein duet with Pat Dam Smith, and together their voices evoking a bygone world. 

“I think making records is a really powerful way of letting go of experiences,” Stein notes. “I’m allowing myself to kiss things goodbye.” Through these converging chapters of her life, ‘The Weightless Hour’feels like an arrival for Juanita Stein: “I’ve finally learned to be okay in space and be loud in my experiences.”

Tracklist:
1. The Weightless Hour
2. Mother Natures Scorn
3. The Game
4. Old world
5. Carry Me
6. Motionless
7. Daily Rituals
8. Ceremony9. Driving Nowhere
10. Delilah

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