Andy's Aural Advent: 18th Dec. The Weather Station - "Way It Is, Way It Could Be"

"It's comin' on Christmas, it's comin' on Joni." Whenever this time of year rolls around, I find myself reaching for my Joni Mitchell albums - if out walking in the snow, there's no better companion than Hejira, Joni in her black beret, whispering in your ear, while the warm intimacy of Blue and Court & Spark pick me up and sit me down in front of a flaming wood-cabin log fire (even though I'm pretty sure I've never listened to them in such surroundings).

The Weather Station, another fabulous act on the Paradise of Bachelors roster, take me to a similar place. Certainly, Tamara Lindeman comes on strongly like Clouds-period Joni on “Way It Is, Way It Could Be", a tale of driving through Canada. They're "living out the dream" - or, at least, they should be - "out on the road". It's not just in Lindeman's soothing delivery but in her painterly eye for detail ("you looked small in your coat one hand up on the window") and the physical and emotional geography of her writing - what is her daydreaming partner thinking and what's that look in his eye as the landscape changes, "road giving way to river", around them?