Looking Out My Window, the debut album by Grand Manan-based singer songwriter Carlene (Carly Maicher) is easily one of the strongest debut albums you will hear anywhere this year.
Matt Carter
The world reads differently near the ocean. Looking out on the endless sea has a way of shifting priorities, calming anxieties, and reprioritizing everything we thought was important; everything we thought we knew about our world and those around us. When staring out across the waves, all of life’s insignificant demands seem to rise to the surface and for a brief moment, feel as though they could be carried away with the tides. But they can’t. They never really go away. No really. That’s all part of the illusion and the thing that draws so many to the edges of the earth. With the release of her debut album, Grand Manan-based singer songwriter Carlene (Carly Maicher) shares nine beautiful folk songs, each a delicate observation on love, life, and longing, penned with the aid of Big Water’s intangible je ne sais quoi.
Looking Out My Window is a collection of meditations on life and a coming to terms with the unpredictability of it all. Inspired by the cold, unforgiving energy that mercilessly pounds the shoreline while cradling sailors and fisherman in their boats, Maicher has crafted a distinct melancholic atmosphere that commands attention across soothing choruses and lonely melodic progressions aimed at reconciling friendships lost and lovers scorned. After more than a decade spent living her life as a defiant recluse, Maicher’s debut – ten years in the making – reflects every hard earned moment spent articulating the true meaning of life in isolation, comforted only by her thoughts and a desire to express them through this unique lens.
Recorded by award winning engineer and producer Mike Trask, who captured each of these nine songs on analog tape in the comfort of Maicher’s island home while helping to highlight the intricacies of each delicate moment with help from his many collaborators including Matt Hayes (fiddle), Julie Aubé (harmony vocals), Christian Belliveau (bass), Marie Andrée Gaudet (fiddle), and Jason LeBlanc (additional guitars), Looking Out My Window is almost as much a testament to the strength of this collaborative team as it is to Maicher’s voice, her cathartic musings, and her brilliantly lonely, sparse melodies. Almost. She could have easily carried these songs on her own, but the subtle additions provided by her collaborators lift each unique story up to crest and recede as one fades and another begins.
Easily one of the strongest debut albums you will hear anywhere this year, Looking Out My Window is as confident an introduction as any artist could ever hope to make.
The world reads differently near the ocean.
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