The Rabbit is the lushly orchestrated and expertly executed new album from chamber folk-pop artist meka. With thought-provoking lyricism and intricate layers of instrumental textures, The Rabbit is an epic and moving sonic undertaking that allows the Sacramento-based multi-instrumentalist to exercise their craft and skills to express deep human emotions that anyone could relate to.
The album begins with “Something Strange”. Understated guitar strums and picking greet meka’s delicate, yet powerful vocals that weave a snaking and memorable melody. Then, like a Bryter Layter-era Nick Drake composition, there emerge drums with open acoustic guitar chords, beautiful piano trills, and sustained strings to add to this richly orchestrated introduction of the record.
This is followed by the similarly upbeat “Temperance,” the first single off of the album, which was released last year. More darkly rich guitar and spritely piano are skillfully plucked and played in intertwining ribbons as more strings create a thematic accompaniment. Beautifully delivered vocals and harmonies float like a family of doves over all of this.
The record makes a turn towards a slower, percussively light vein on “Heavy Hands.” More stripped back than the opening tracks but lacking none of the charm, there are plenty of wonderfully conducted strings and guitar picking. A triumphant and glad chorus accents the somber verses and brings to mind contemporaries like Weyes Blood. The wistfulness continues on the somewhat smoky, indie lounge vibe of “Memory Machine.” The sparser instrumentation drives home the impressive range and dynamism of meka as a vocalist.
The middle of the album is marked by the soft subtleties of “Vice and Virtues” and the single “Baby Blues.” Lullaby-like and gentle, the latter’s deeply tuned acoustic guitar picking and echoey vocals create the perfect atmosphere for an impossibly high violin note to occasionally peek in. It might be the album’s shortest song, but it is possibly one of its most impactful with its folky brevity. On “Tomato Song,” poetic imagery is combined with acoustic guitars, piano, and the return of subtle yet upbeat drumming. The song boasts a chorus with a delightfully transient chord progression over which meka’s vocals soar, contemplating how to decipher what is real and what is a dream.
The Rabbit is no one-trick folk pony. The epic “The Tower” has a sinister flair with marching drums and cyclical guitar riffing that midway through disintegrate into a cacophony of swirling guitar feedback and avante garde drumming before exploding into a CSNY-esque climax of vocal harmonies. The spacy and etherealness of “Manzanita” provides the dry ground on which we can catch our breath after all this flood of psych-tinged folk rock.
The album ends with “What Once Was”, showing that meka has no shortage of great rolling, picked-out guitar parts. It is a fitfully subdued ending with touches of tight, ascending choral harmonies. Everything on this record sounds fantastic. The strings, the professionally picked guitars, the piano arpeggios, and meka’s vocals are angelic while expressing a heartbreakingly beautiful melancholy that only those trapped in the reality of life on earth could know. This is healing music for a world that has plenty of healing to do.
meka’s The Rabbit is now on all streaming sites and available on vinyl.
Written by John Brouk
