Belle Adair
The breezy jangle of “Get Away,” the opening track off Belle Adair’s striking new album, ‘Tuscumbia,’ might not be the first thing you’d expect to hear from an Alabama band named after a John Steinbeck reference. Combining mellow, atmospheric rock and swirling, retro power-pop, it’s more Big Star than Swampers, but it’s an ideal gateway into the blissed-out world of Belle Adair, a group that manages to make even worry and isolation sound inviting. Recorded at Muscle Shoals’ legendary FAME Studios with Wilco producer/engineer Tom Schick, ‘Tuscumbia’ calls to mind everything from The Byrds to Teenage Fanclub as frontman Matthew Green’s meditative lyrics navigate a slew of major life changes, contemplate the meaning of home, and grapple with the realities of life on the road.
Titled after the Alabama town where Green lived while he wrote much of the album, ‘Tuscumbia’ is rich with multi-part harmonies and chiming guitars, offering hints at times of southern California country and even vintage Britpop. Equal parts exuberant and introspective, the songs coast on lighter-than-air melodies, but Green has never been one to shy away from the weighty task of critical self-examination. On “Long Fade Out,” he concludes that “love is such a lonely notion,” while “See It Through” finds him putting in the work to overcome his own perceived shortcomings, and “Neptune City” conjures up visions of a seaside town shuttered for the winter as Green asks, “How was I supposed to let you in?”
“The album asks a lot of questions without really attempting to answer them,” explains Green. “That was a conscious decision. I met my future wife in Tuscumbia and I was preparing to get married when I wrote these songs, so I think I was working through the fear and anxiety and, God forbid, happiness, that came with it,” he laughs. “Posing these questions was my way of processing all the changes I was going through.”
