Adam Levy - Naubinway

A really good record can be found almost every month. But then there are unique records. Special albums that stay in your mind - and on your turntable/CD-player/smartphone - for a long time. They are really seldom (for me it's about one or two in a decade).
Naubinway - the first solo record of Minneapolis music legend Adam Levy (best known from The Honeydogs) - is out now! And for me it IS one of these unique recordings.

Adam Levy (2015)

The album is released by Think Piece Publishing - which is quite surprising at first sight. But at a closer look it is the perfect choice: Think Piece Publishing was founded in 2012 by Adam Wahlberg just for one reason: to introduce people of shared health backgrounds to each other. Dealing with health challenges can be hard, especially when these are stigmatized - like mental illness.

Adam Levy - Live in Berlin 2014

Adam Levy's son Daniel committed suicide in 2012. Adam stopped his musical work and spent much of the next three years grieving and sharing his story in public forums. In 2014 Adam started to work on the new record. The songs are very introspective and refer to the time around this tragic event. Naubinway has become an album of exquisite songcraft that focuses on the themes of love, loss, grieve and grace. 

Daniel s stunning artwork is featured on the cover and in a 32-page booklet.

Naubinway - Cover Artwork

Adam Wahlberg describes the LP: "The songs are amazing. They’re raw, lyrical, melodic, mostly acoustic, and yes, at times, painful, but in a beautiful and healing way. I can’t wait for you to hear them."

 

The first track - Take It As It Comes - and its wonderful video is here:

The record is mainly acoustic, focussing just on the guitar play and the vocals. 

Every single one of the 13 tracks is self-contained and quite different from each other which makes it very hard to recommend single songs to get a taste of the album. I simply recommend to listen to the LP from start to finish. 

If you just want 3-4 songs at first listen to "Take It As It Comes" (it's simply beautiful), "Atoms Never Die" (it's haunting; one of the very few songs I know that I tend to repeat just after the first run), "Naubinway" (it's overwhelming and heartbreaking) and "When Your Well Runs Dry" (I'm sure Lennon would have been jealous because he didn't write it himself).

Listen to Naubinway in its entirety at Spotify:

Buy Naubinway at Bandcamp or Amazon.com (CD, Vinyl, digital)

PS: Thanks to Bleu McAuley and Matthias Heimann for introducing me into the stunning music of The Honeydogs ans Adam Levy!