About a week into my focused thinking on the music of Aldrich, I realized that a melodic remnant from their last album, Another Guise, has, since I first heard it, permeated the murkiest seas of my imagination. The melody stuck in my head somewhere beyond conscious thought, and it is inexplicably and permanently linked to a manufactured moving picture of my late grandmother doing the twist as if on an exhaustedly syndicated late-night dancing TV show. While I can’t explain my associations with the first sung verses from Aldrich’s “In the Blue”, I can say that Caleb Anderson’s melodies are melodic to the point of being fundamental–specific enough to write themselves across my memory in permanent marker.
Anderson is once again guided by his melodic impulse on each sunset we all forget the breaking of the dawn. The EP’s title is sung and framed within the standout refrain from the opening song “Woke with the Morning.” Joel Ruby’s french horn swells alongside Aldrich's mainstays who play at a neighborly pace.
There is an unmistakable feeling of neighborhood and home to be found inside of Caleb’s music. Seemingly every flourish and instrument that brought each sunset we all forget the breaking of the dawn to life is sentimentally attached to Caleb’s world. On “Abbey Doors”, a Wing & Son 5-pedal piano does the heavy-lifting in establishing the atmosphere implied by the song. The antiquated upright uses “orchestral attachments” to suggest the sounds of harpsichords and zithers. The instrument had been a part of Caleb’s life for almost 15 years. Its backstory features a small town church, parents, and three houses across Minnesota.
“Abbey Doors’” thematic material was born out of Anderson’s work with antique architectural salvage in the Tudor revival style. Surrounded by chandeliers and stained glass featuring motifs of knights and dragons, medieval imagery became a provocative storytelling device for Caleb. Alongside this medieval picture, there’s gardens, falltime, watching a loved one curl up with a blanket, long walks–the scenes in Aldrich’s music feel personal through all their excursions.
Aldrich’s collaborators all have established histories that extend past playing music in a band. Everyone is from somewhere familiar–a marimbist from church, the french horn player from preschool, friends with years behind them, friends from college orientation who later became a co-worker and triplex housemate. . There is a sincere togetherness to Aldrich’s work.
Unlike Another Guise, each sunset we all forget the breaking of the dawn was produced in-house by Anderson. The lion’s share of “Woke with the Morning” and “Love You So” was recorded live with the core of the band. Destin Modina’s electric guitar and Caleb’s acoustic ping-pong along, trading space dynamically, while Reese Kling and Matt Tessier find laid-back loping pastures in the rhythm section. The songs feel more performed than tracked, and the project benefits from this. Hank Donato’s perfect accompaniment on piano, Caleb’s gentle vocals, Nelson Ny-Devereaux’s orchestrating woodwinds, the storytime feel of Jenny Klukken’s marimba, the list goes on. However the band rehearsed and captured these pieces is flattering to material and easy on the ear. With a more stripped back approach each sunset we all forget the breaking of the dawn captures the energy of a live performance with the magic of a more extensive studio effort.
While overarchingly sweet and cordial, Each sunset we all forget the breaking of the dawn isn’t without darkness or unanswered questions. The bridge of “Woke with the Morning” plays troublingly while Caleb sings:
As a melody floating on
We’re here and gone
We’re here and gone
“Abbey Doors” ends ambiguously, loosely telling the tale of a newborn child with a captured, dying (?) mother:
Hasten now to the healer’s home
Is there no remedy as she slips away?
Even on the more docile number “Love You So”, the rising key changes lend themselves to the feeling of a fever.
The EP ends with this picture:
All a dream of winter
Soon to fold again
Aldrich makes cheerful and approachable music. But, more than ever, they are dealing with an emotional range that is richer, more welcoming and honest than the popular music these catchy tunes loosely resemble.
each sunset we all forget the breaking of the dawn ends too soon. Exactly as all my favorite recordings do. The suite of music manages to be haunting just by playing itself out from beginning to end. I can’t speak for these songs better than they can speak for themselves. Caleb’s songs feel true-to-life, they are performed beautifully. And by listening to them, repeatedly listening to them, I feel closer to whoever is singing to me.
Sam Walker 01.27.25
