I’ll admit it: I first discovered Noah Gundersen on the soundtrack of the first season of FX’s biker-gang masterpiece Sons of Anarchy. The scenes featuring Gundersen’s music had a tendency to give me more feelings than I am generally comfortable with. However, upon more research and further listening I eventually came to the conclusion that those feelings had less to do with “Hamlet on motorcycles” and more to do with Gundersen’s uncanny ability to verbalize all of the emotional shit that you generally save for the aftermath of the worst of family get-togethers and/or heartbreaks.
And now he’s back with his second album, Carry the Ghost — which, in short, is an ode to the particular kind of grief that is born with uncertainty in life, in relationships, in the choices of the everyday that before you realize it become the cornerstones of your personal narrative.
Stylistically, Carry the Ghost is similar to Gundersen’s past work. Its straightforward vocals, piano and guitar are reminiscent of Neil Young and Bob Dylan’s more personal work. And perhaps that’s what is so appealing about Gundersen: He makes the ugly stuff beautiful.
Carry the Ghost is an exploration of the singer-songwriter’s break with his evangelical upbringing, a complicated endeavor in itself. To break with the beliefs of one’s family is to inevitably split up with the family dynamic itself. Gundersen puts this most bluntly his song “Show Me the Light”:
I watched you watching Jesus like you’re watching a star
Started praying you’d find room for both of us in your heart
But the more I tried the more I’d find I could not pretend
To give a damn for your religion or for all your shitty friends
Back then
Every Sunday I would sit in your row
Praying that one day you would finally notice
But now that I’m older I finally see
You were the worst and the best thing that happened to me
With lyrics like these, Gundersen does some seriously difficult topics some serious poetic justice. Most definitely one of my favorite albums of 2015, Carry the Ghost is a must listen for anyone ready to slow down and think.