Recorded at the end of last summer at Q Studios in Somerville, Mass., with his latest latest co-conspirators (guitarist, Dave Hinckley; and organist/percussionist, Elio DeLuca), Some Weather, is a sprawling 10-track collection, that blends woodsy folk, pastoral indie rock, heartfelt alt-country, ‘60s British invasion, rootsy Americana and old-timey country and western and mirrors the westward travel and imagery his achingly poetic lyrics evoke. “The record itself is based on a recurring dream I was having,” explains Fiore. “In it, I was back in the times of the explorers. I was one of them. We were moving across new land, conquering, displacing what we found, claiming what was vacant. And it spanned my lifetime; I was young at the beginning, and old at the end.” Anchored by Fiore’s warm, reverb-drenched vocals and with each track imbued with a sense of nostalgia, the self-produced album is a slow burn that chugs like a covered wagon across the dusty, wide open plains.
While not exactly a concept record, each song is a piece of the trip ― the travel and the motion, the stops along the way, the people, the loss, the gain, and the final destination. Each track seamlessly sliding into the next, much like the dreams they were constructed from. Opening with “Knot in the Vine,” Faces on Film introduces us to his musical journey with a bouncy bass line, shakers, and short stabs of echoey guitar before his hazy, soaring vocals kick in and transport us to a bygone era as he sings: “But I feel no memory of you/Showin’ in the eye of mine/Knowin’ it’s an aim to lose/You’re growin’ the knot in the vine.” Album stand out, “Harlem Roses,” begins with a saloon-esque piano and Fiore’s faraway voice before other instruments - a rumbling bass, a keyboard line, whistling, a tambourine, a Wurlitzer - creep in here and there, adding weight and dimension but never distracting or taking away from the plaintive melody. Other highlights include the sleigh bell-laden “Great Move North,” the acoustic “Under Newry,” the old-world Italian sound of “Bride” and the country waltz of “Fire and Fume. rounding out an LP that has received comparisons to My Morning Jacket, Band of Horses, Iron and Wine and Fleet Foxes, and was called “striking” by longtime supporters The Boston Globe. “But it’s not mere atmosphere or embellishment — or Fiore’s mesmeric echo of a voice — that makes ‘Some Weather’ so thoroughly arresting. It’s the sustained sense of otherworldly place and space, conjoined with melodies that arc and bend and soar to the sky — and then seem to billow beyond it,” they exclaimed.
Some Weather follows Faces on Film’s revered 2008 album The Troubles, an album that explored the darker side of indie rock and was likened to Modest Mouse and Annuals. The debut led to Fiore winning Boston Phoenix’s 2009 award for Best Singer/Songwriter in Boston and a spotlight by NPR’s “Second Stage,” who said his music showcases “both the epic and the intimate.” This has all earned Fiore tours alongside The Veils, Foreign Born and Freelance Whales as well as slots on stages with the likes of Blitzen Trapper, Akron/Family, A.A. Bondy and Richard Ashcroft. Whether performing solo or with a full band, Faces on Film’s music, as Melophobe.com points out, has proven to be “some of the most emotionally powerful Boston has to offer.”
