It’s a tough ask for inspiration to strike every day, especially for a month straight. But hemlock’s latest release is the 6th time they’ve taken on the challenge to write a song a day, and release the collection as an LP. The aptly named november marks a new chapter in this Louisiana-born folk singer’s catalog– which now includes half a year’s worth of daily demos.
For such a high output, many of the rough acoustic ballads on this project are true gems.
The first six tracks on the project perfectly capture its tone as a series of life vignettes. After a song about highway I-55, november 2nd’s “for isabel” sees hemlock somberly proclaim, “home is everywhere I’ve ever laid my head”. This line proves to be the true thesis of the record, as they go on to sing of the sentimental ties they have to various places and people. The opening stretch concludes with the longest song on the tracklist “little miss anthropocene”. Here, hemlock’s vocals convey a powerful sense of tension, combining poetic social commentary with colloquial language. Although the bridge’s lyrics feel like they drag the concept a bit past necessity, their ideas hold incredible potential.
Some mid-month standouts include “pick me up put me down” and “anything at all” – the former of which shines through with its sharper guitar tone. Hemlock’s use of identifiable backing vocals throughout the tracklist works really well to fill out its minimal production. Their command of the classic folk guitar and vocal combo makes even a line about a Buc-ee’s parking lot feel profound.
But in the vast sea of captivating titles, november 21st’s “evergreen” has a special charm that holds a candle to the work of modern songwriting legends like Adrianne Lenker. This song has the record’s strongest melodic phrasing and one of the most evocative vocal performances. If it wasn’t buried so deep in a demo record, it would no doubt be an indie-folk hit.
Due to the nature of the project, some songs feel much more like half formed ideas than others. Hemlock respectfully does not try to hide this, but rather takes the opportunity to express their earnest state of mind. The beautiful “ring camera doorbell” is recorded over oddly mixed water noise. They stop singing just over a minute in to say, “I was trying to write this acapella song, and I’m not really committed to it,” before sharing a loosely related story about a friend. It’s not even a particularly interesting story. But adding this in-the-moment touch to recorded music feels refreshing in an artistic landscape that urges perfection.
The tracklist order is another shortcoming of this advent-calendar album format. The closer “lemon tree” is not a bad song, but it does not pack the emotional punch that a final track should. The penultimate day’s song, “two in the”, would’ve made a more fitting end, since it has a little more going on instrumentally.
Regardless, it takes guts to publish something, often considered just a songwriting exercise, in its raw form. These songs could be re-envisioned with more time and production, but they don’t require it in order to be great. After 90 minutes of listening, you feel like you know hemlock’s story on a vulnerable level– even if you went into it blind.
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