SIGNIFICANT WEATHER

Real Life Buildings are fixated on climate: the way?weather aff ects your mood, how shifts in the seasons?can prove portentous or promising. The New?York-based project, which is led by Matthew Van?Asselt, put out its debut release, It Snowed, back in?2014, and it was fi lled with tracks like Thaw and A?Relative Place, songs that equated melting snow or?blustery winds with seismic emotional fl uctuations.?That songwriting tic continues on Signi cant Weather,?Real Life Building's excellent new album, which comes?out in April.?Their lineup has grown to include Vagabon's L'titia?Tamko and Crying's Elaiza Santos, among others, and?the new additions contribute to the band's fuller and?more vibrant sound. Lead single Cold starts o ff?despondent and insular before launching into a busy?mess of horns and nervous energy. Van Asselt?attempts to fi nd a middle ground between complacency?and happiness: For the last year, I've felt like if I?could just fi nd the right place/ If I could just get the?right stuff and have the right routine/ I wouldn't have?to worry about ever feeling down, he sings breathlessly,?full well knowing that there's no easy road to?feeling OK with yourself. - Stereogum