Clattermouuuth’s Music of The Week: ‘American Recordings’ By Truman Sinclair

By Andrew Kohler

Welcome back to Clattermouuuth’s Music of the Week, curating Rockaway’s music taste one week at a time.

This week, I wanted to talk about an album that I stumbled across recently: “American Recordings” by Truman Sinclair. It’s an indie folk album with meaningful lyrics and powerful storytelling.

The sound of the album really captivated me. There’s often a mix of Bob Dylan-like instrumentation with almost the emo-like vocals of Elliott Smith. This mix of elements creates a vintage and melancholic vibe.

The lyrics in this album are super complex and introspective. For example, the final song, “Black Train,” is about the inevitable and unapologetic destruction of our environment. My favorite line in this song — and honestly the album as a whole — is: “And I don’t know why you can’t look in my eye, When you’re telling them plainly you’re letting them die.” This line captures the meaning of the song as a whole — we’re completely neglecting the fact that our environment is completely falling apart.

During an interview with 20 Watts Magazine, Truman spoke of what his vision was during the creation of the album, “There are things about [America] that I love and there are things about it that I really don’t love. What I wanted to do was make one thing to be like, that’s the America I’m talking about when I say ‘God bless the U.S.’ You know what I mean?” and that quote stuck with me. This album isn’t patriotic, but it isn’t anti-America. It’s a reflection on the country — the good and the bad.

Truman isn’t providing any solutions; he’s telling honest, American stories. It’s a debut album with a clear and powerful purpose. It gives comfort to us all as Americans, letting us know that this is the country we live in, and we all live in it together.

So please, check this album out. You won’t regret it.