Norm

It's an album that further solidifies his position as a genre-leading storyteller, and it will have you humming along as much as it'll have you looking over your shoulder.

Upon first listen, “Norm” is a gorgeously produced collection of short folk-fiction. When given closer attention, the album unfurls into an anthology of dark, interconnected tales of loss, unrequited love and casual brushes with the divine.

The sensation of incomprehension itself is part of the record’s charm. The music itself is suggestive, rapturous, mysterious, and mesmerizing. The lyrics set the mood. Each song works on its own. The connections between cuts may be vague, but they share an alluring magnetism.

There’s no sense of resolution by the end of the record. Its characters could be equally pitiful as they are decent. Still, Andy Shauf’s talent for playing god to these little dioramas is as consistent as ever.

Shauf clearly didn't want to repeat himself, and he hasn't, even though the soft suede of his voice still dominates the tracks, seeming even stronger when his characters are in emotional retreat. One might be tempted to play this story for laughs, and it's commendable this album feels straightforward and sincere, even at its least plausible and possibly blasphemous.

What could have been merely clever becomes soulful and poignant thanks to Shauf's understated vocals, his eye for mundane details and flourishes. [Mar 2023, p.35]

The artist’s stories work as not-quite-parables, with no message tumbling through and pushing everything along, but certainly asking the listener to spend time with whatever part of themselves they see in the twists and turns. And even when it’s hard, Shauf’s music makes self-reflection a temptation too inviting to resist.

His eighth album, Norm, is his most meticulous and beguiling, straying from his semi-autobiographical past work to span three perspectives and tactfully downplaying its philosophical quandaries with his lushest arrangements to date.

The storytelling is tight and riveting as ever, each song serving the greater narrative in its unique way. The same can be said for the musical performances (all done by Shauf).