Altogether Stranger is the latest work from Omnichord-toting songwriter Lael Neale. This album is her third collaboration with producer Guy Blakeslee. It follows Star Eaters Delight (2023), which found a huge fan in the legend that is Iggy Pop.
Neale, Virginia-born but California-resident, said: “In the course of writing this [new] record there was one song I could never finish. The main line was, ‘I don’t belong here, I am an altogether stranger.’ I meant ‘stranger’ as a noun, not an adjective. Even though I abandoned the song, the lost chorus stuck with me and became the unspoken motif of the record.”
Altogether Stranger guest review
James Murray
Muzz is the lead vocalist and guitarist for Chelmsford-based trio The Trial.
The LP is a 32-minute speech to those who don’t fit in. One of hope, acceptance, and all things passed past but never lost. Conceived in the wake of early morning LA, the LP gazes through the window into a world polarised and unchanging.
The spacious soundscapes are delicately intertwined with its observational roots. They produce a melancholic feeling as if tethered to nothing at all. As she sings in ‘Tell Me How To Be Here’, “It’s just a little lonely, without the ground below me.”
Varying throughout in musical styles, the first-hand account of a return to a challenging urban home becomes a direct and universal image of alienation in modern life. Lovingly soundtracked by earnest and free-flowing drone music.
Gliding along in its pervasive melancholy, the songs give all that they see to give, a directness maybe found from a continual commitment to DIY home recording, and conjure glittering, almost romantic, images of human life.
Final thoughts
With every clear intention, that’s what the LP delivers. A dive both in and out of the mind and daily life, if you connect with life then you may too connect with Altogether Stranger.
Altogether Stranger by Lael Neale is out now on Sub Pop. The remaining dates of her UK tour are:
Tuesday, 27 May: Bristol @ The Louisiana
Wednesday, 28 May: London @ Omeara
Thursday, 29 May: Manchester @ YES Basement
Friday, 30 May: Newcastle @ Cumberland Arms
Saturday, 31 May: Glasgow @ Hug & Pint
You can see The Altogether Stranger film, written and directed by Neale and Blakeslee, to accompany the LP here:
Did you enjoy reading this article? Please let me know in the comments below. Why not subscribe for free to my blog using the form above? Don’t miss out on upcoming articles about music, film, radio. Basically, what appeals to me and I hope will be interesting for you.
