This week's PBS Feature Album is I Am The River, The River Is Me, the fifth album by multi-award-winning artist and Milk! Records co-founder Jen Cloher.
I Am The River, The River Is Me is an honouring of Jen’s Māori heritage, the indigenous people of Aotearoa, New Zealand and the first time they have woven the Māori language through their songwriting. These are fiercely political songs that never feel heavy: They are energetic and full-blooded, alive with the knowledge that to simply exist — to scream and laugh and sing and make art — is as much a form of resistance as to fight.
On their first album in five years, Cloher finally breathes out. I Am The River, The River Is Me, is verdant and rich; it luxuriates in stillness, and carries itself with cool, unfussy confidence. It suggests that home is not found in a place or a politic, but in the community you keep: Inspired by Cloher’s powerful matrilineal line of wāhine Māori, I Am The River, The River Is Me is not urgent, or hurried, but it is vital, made with the care and ease of someone who knows that their past began before birth, and will continue long after they’re gone.
I Am The River, The River Is Me is an album of remarkable generosity and grace. It is not a perfect self-portrait, and it possesses no universal truth about what it means to be Māori, or to be wahine toa (a strong woman), or to be takatāpui, or even to be Jen Cloher. Instead, it captures something else — a picture of humanity and community as a gorgeous, unfathomable mess. The entire record feels communal — a celebration not just of Cloher, but of the rich, life-filled communities that surround them.
Tune in all this week to hear tracks from I Am The River, The River Is Me, and PBS Members have the chance to win a copy of the album via this Tuesday's e-newsletter, so make sure you check your inbox!
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TOP TRACKS WE'RE LOVING THIS WEEK
RVG - 'Nothing Really Changes'
Charli Needs Braces - 'Go To Sleep'
Tiny Ruins - 'Dorothy Bay'
IN2STELLAR - 'Feels Bad'
30/70 - 'Jay Luv'
Los Bitchos - 'Tequila'
Seja - 'Home'
Nicole Skeltys - 'Trading in Air'
WILSN - 'Those Days Are Over'
Half Gift - 'The Bones of Everything'
