One AM Radio - A Name Writ in Water
(Level Plane)
At the age of 25, poet John Keats was coughing up blood, close to death. Convinced that no one would remember his work, he asked that his name not be inscribed on his tombstone, instead offering his own epitaph: "Here lies one whose name was writ in water." The songs written by Hrishikesh Hirway often seem like attempts to recapture lost moments, barely-there memories etched into the mind but eroded by time and psychological distortion—like trying to read words traced with fingertips onto the water's surface. This album conveys the sensation of waking from an epiphanic dream and trying in vain to reconstruct the plot. Causal connections slip away, leaving behind only details and impressions. "You once knew but now forgot what you've been looking for./Was it to or from someone that all this time you've been on the run?/Or once again has your memory been wrong, and you've been alone all along?"
Sonically, The One AM Radio is grounded in Hirway's inventive fingerpicking and gentle vocals, tied down by hushed yet precise electronic rhythms. Violin, musical saw, and horns provide graceful melodic counterpoint. Folky lullabies comparable to those of Nick Drake and Iron and Wine are matched with elegant laptop textures. In terms of both songwriting and production, this is one of the best releases of the year.
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