Off On in Bloomington, MN

Under the banner of
This Is the Kit
, Britain's
Kate Stables
has amassed an impressive catalog of thoughtful, sometimes idiosyncratic folk songs whose winding melodies are often set to spiky rhythms and offbeat time signatures. After breaking out with 2015's
Aaron Dessner
-produced
Bashed Out
, she found a home on the
Rough Trade
label, which helped raise her profile even higher with 2017's winsome
Moonshine Freeze
.
Off Off On
,
's fifth album overall, finds
Stables
and her crew working alongside New York-based producer
Josh Kaufman
(
Bonny Light Horseman
Muzz
) on another warmly literate and subtly complex collection, essentially picking up where its predecessor left off. Largely written during a 2019 tour with
the National
, there is an undercurrent of restlessness in this material, with
' observations of life in motion complimented by skittering percussion, agile fingerpicking, and colorful horn lines dancing across the stereo field. Even the album's title itself speaks of the herky-jerky nature of touring, the hurry-up-and-wait mentality of racing to make a soundcheck only to spend the next five to six hours in the stationary limbo leading up to showtime, then repeating the whole cycle the next day. Without the routines and demands of domestic life, this type of travel allows plenty of space for anxious minds to wander, a theme hammered home on the cyclical "This Is What You Did." Examinations of conflict and the passage of time also weigh heavily, especially on tracks like "No Such Thing" and "Slider," while the gorgeous closer, "Keep Going," translates time into movement with a hard-won poetic grace. Although
is ultimately
' project, regular collaborators like bassist/singer
Rozi Plain
, guitarist
Neil Smith
, and drummer
Jamie Whitby-Coles
once again bring her detailed music into focus, locking in together like a single organism while her husband, multi-instrumentalist
Jesse D. Vernon
, further paints the canvas in earthy hues. In spite of its musical intricacy,
remains a relatable portal into the human experience and
is as appealing as anything
has ever released. ~ Timothy Monger