Review: Mt. Oriander - Then the Lightness leaves and I become heavy again

Label: Count your Lucky Stars

MT. ORIANDER's debut album is perfectly placed, with the shitty long winter ahead of us. Yeah, this is the record that will be the soundtrack of you sitting alone by the window, staring at the snowy landscape and thinking about all the things that go wrong in your life...

MT. ORIANDER is Keith Latinen's solo project that got its start with last year's remarkable "This is not the Way I wanted you to find out"-EP. The co-founder of Count your Lucky Stars Records and EMPIRE! EMPIRE! (I WAS A LONELY STATE) took a time-off from music the years before and came back even stronger in 2021. He was dearly missed among the scene. Even a scene as small as Midwest-Emo is nowadays needs its heroes and light figures.

If you were into EMPIRE! EMPIRE! back then, there's no way Latinen's new project will leave you cold. The guitar work is from the same cloth and the feeling is kinda similar. It's classic Midwest-Emo in that regard: Sad, melancholic, but never bleak. Latinen serves you the kind of melancholy that makes you feel warm inside. The moments he builds are small and intimade, charming and honest. There's no contrived and overblown drama to be found in these 40 minutes. But you could count on that, if you know Latinen.

Basically MT. ORIANDER feels like Keith Latinen decided to continue EMPIRE! EMPIRE! on his own, toning it down a few notches. The songs never get out of control or try to prove something. They get to the point, while being as unconventional as you'd expected them to be. Keith knows what he's best at and he runs with it for the duration of the album. It's a clever decision, cause there are not many (if any) songwriters in Midwest-Emo doing it better. I don't wanna pick up the saying with the wine and the age, so whatever the reason may be, but Keith grew a lot as a songwriter as well as a singer. He's definitely more confident about his voice than in the EMPIRE! EMPIRE!-days and that's something that does "Then the Lightness leaves and I become heavy again" many favors. Personally I could listen to his voice forever and a day, no matter how dumb (they aren't!!!) the lyrics he's singing are. If you're feeling the same about his voice, than this record will be one big comfort zone for you...

Musically he still delivers the goods, with beautiful, unpretentious melodies, memorable hooklines, effectively placed horns and an overall traditional approach I really dig. I also like that the instrumentation is calm and relaxed throughout. That was something I hoped for, solely to separate MT. ORIANDER from Keith's other new, and more up-beat project PARTING. As much as I'm into Keith's voice, the instrumental pieces are just as terrific, with the impressively constructed, voice-less "If only something would go right for a change" being one of the LP's highlights.

Talking about the tracklist, you can feel the effort that was put in. There's no slump to be found and the highlights are cleverly spread across the whole album. Still, the ending stretch with "We are not in this alone" and "You don't have to keep trying anymore" is probably the best damn thing. Here's where I got to talk about Keith's guests. It must be a long time ago where guest spots where used as effectively as on this LP. The guests create small, special moments most of the time but still remain what they essentially were intended to be: guests. They don't take away from the mood of the album, but rather add a lot to it.

"Then the Lightness leaves and I become heavy again" is an exceptionally good Emo-record that will be celebrated among the scene. Winter shall go on forever...