“Early morning I can’t sleep, I turn away from the sun.”
Lande Hekt over the years is best known for her work with Muncie Girls, and crafting punk-flecked songs that put the songwriter close to the hearts of many. With their last record releasing in 2018, the group’s discography has begun to slowly fade alongside other memories of the bygone decade. In the new decade, Lande Hekt turned her hand to songwriting on her own terms with 2021’s Going To Hell, a record that explored her experience of coming out as gay, as well as assuring Lande’s ability at songwriting. With House Without a View, there is potential for Lande to take a further step towards landing herself alongside the stalwarts of the singer-songwriter genre.
There’s a joyful and pleasant manner to House Without a View, this springs up on early tracks “Backstreet Snow” and “Gay Space Cadets“, that delve into the more indie rock side of things. The dancing melodies become difficult not to indulge in the latter, while these moments break up the ebb and flow of the record. There is an upbeat charm across House Without a View, with later tracks such as the title track and “Lola” having a jangly beat that gives House Without a View a life and heart. Across the performance on some of these tracks, the performance from Hekt feels sincere and embraced, that what is being expressed is her true musical calling.
The deep, slow cut in the form of “Always Hurt” holds a starkness sitting alongside the animation of the aforementioned tracks. The lamenting tones of offer up House Without a View‘s deepest introspection. Given the strength of this track, it perhaps seems a missed opportunity to not see more of these paced tracks across the record, with one of the record’s downsides is that it offers up perhaps too much of the indie rock sound many had become accustomed to. While there are other options and routes as hand to see extra variety sonically on the record, Lande clearly has an excellent ability for these sombre tracks.
The record’s closing moments sees penultimate track “Take A Break“, which hands out House Without a View‘s most pertinent lyricism in the form of “Are you a bit lonely? Are you a bit worried? Yet to discover to anything of your own?“, with the following lyricism offering up reassurance that maybe all isn’t as bleak it seems. Ending with “First Girlfriend“, which postures itself as a whimsical love song, avoiding the striking tones that many closers delve into for a light-hearted rumination about your first girlfriend.
House Without a View can be seen as a record of an artist not only exploring and finding out who they are personally, but who they are musically. It doesn’t strike at the emotions that fellow singer-songwriters such as Angel Olsen or Sharon Van Etten would in their bodies of work, however Hekt can be seen at a different point in both their lives and career. While this can leave House Without a View somewhat fleeting in its impact, it allows it to be a record to listened to and enjoyed without too emotional investment. For now it shall simply remain best to see where this evidently talent ends up finding themselves.
7/10
House Without a View is out this Friday via Prize Sunflower Records and can be pre-ordered here.