Open Book | Leaning In
(Independent)
Serene and quietly compelling, you’d swear Open Book’s final long-player, the appropriately titled Leaning In, was an acoustic record—that is, until you realize that the plethora of instruments and sounds (including Lloyd Maines’s perfect pedal steel) swirling around behind the gossamer blend of Michele and the late Rick Gedney’s voices are made with electric instruments. That’s when you might search for Daniel Lanois’s name in the production credits—but you wouldn’t find it: Instead, that ethereal honor goes to Austin’s Billy Masters. Not just because of a song title like “January Knows,” Leaning In, perhaps as a result of its being recorded during the pandemic, feels like a cool-weather record, perfect for frosty Hudson Valley mornings and long, dark nights in the couple’s hometown of Beacon (see the haunting, Cheri Knight-like “Windows”). While the album is, thankfully, not as twee, nor obviously as British, at moments it has certain sonic similarities to Mike and Sally Oldfield’s The Sallyangie—and what could be wrong with that?
This article appears in November 2023.
