by Elise Barbin (@elisecbarb)
On Somewhere, Gum Country collects pieces of everyday minutiae and collages them into a portrait of a young life lived. From abstract, micro, innocuous, important, the record runs the gamut on scope, while treating each of these details as if it were no more important than the last. Focusing on textural and tone control, the duo’s sound mimics their lyrical attention to the small stuff.
The California-via-Canada transplants build upon the sunny guitar pop Courtney Garvin cut her teeth on with her project The Courtneys, adding in elements associated with cerebral 90s rock: swirling interplay between instruments, cascades of synth lines, even some vocoder use here and there. Connor Meyer’s metronomic drumming grounds these layers, in the same way Tim Gane’s rhythm guitar guides stray discordance into order with Stereolab.
However slacker-ish the record’s meandering lyrics present, there’s an aura of frankness to its uncertainty that lends a stamp of humanity. In the title track, Garvin sing-shrugs “I guess this is gonna be my life for a while,” about adapting wherever she lands. A song about tennis-induced endorphins sits next to a song about self-realization sits next to a song about a breakup sits next to a track about plants, which chalks up how these moments might coincide in reality.
Unglamourous but candid, with a slight smirk and without an ounce of self-importance, Gum Country unarchives the slow and fragmented process of becoming oneself.