American Aquarium – Chicamacomico LP

2022 release from the alt-country/American group. Chicamacomico is a heart-wrenching reflection on loss that finds frontman BJ Barham scaling new expressive heights, resulting in the band’s most elemental and emotionally resonant work to date. Named after a former life-saving station built in 1874 on the Outer Banks of the band’s native North Carolina, and produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Nathaniel Rateliff, Hurray for the Riff Raff) at Sonic Ranch, the ten songs on Chicamacomico are shot through with a sense of loss: of life (Barham recently lost his mother and grandmother), of a child, a spouse, or one’s way in the world. In the end, Chicamacomico arrives at salvation in the form of “All I Needed,” the album’s final track and galvanizing first single. Driven by an undeniable beat, warm pedal steel, soaring melody, and Barhman’s lived-in lyrics, the track revels in the power of music as the ultimate salve.