A Pillar of Salt

A Pillar of Salt is the sixth studio album by American folk music artist Noah Gundersen. It was released by Cooking Vinyl America on October 8, 2021.

A Pillar of Salt
Studio album by
Noah Gundersen
ReleasedOctober 8, 2021 (2021-10-08)
LabelCooking Vinyl America
ProducerAndy Park
Noah Gundersen chronology
Lover
(2019)		 A Pillar of Salt
(2021)		 If This Is The End
(2023)

Background
Noah Gundersen performs an acoustic set at Eddie's Attic in Decatur, Georgia on October 15, 2021.

A Pillar of Salt was written over a period starting in March 2020 and continuing well into 2021. Gundersen worked with several collaborators on A Pillar of Salt, including producer Andy Park, pianist Dave Dalton, and guest vocalist Phoebe Bridgers. Sonically, the album is a continuation of Gundersen's branching out from the acoustic niche he had established in the first several years of his career. Along with Gundersen's guitar playing the album contains string sections (arranged by Gundersen's sister, Abby), programmed percussion, layered electric guitar, and synthesized keyboards.

Phoebe Bridgers, shown here in July 2018, was a guest vocalist on the album.

Promotion for A Pillar of Salt began on August 30, 2021, when Gundersen posted an image of a breaking wave with the words, "break my heart into a thousand parts"; the line would turn out to be from the third track on the album, "The Coast". Each day he'd post an image with another lyric from one of the album's tracks, culminating in a September 9 post of the Seattle skyline captioned, "every bar in this city reminds me of somebody now". With this post he announced the premier of the album's first single on the KEXP show, The Morning Show with John Richards at 7:00 am PST the following day. He also announced it would appear on the music streaming app Spotify at midnight that night.

When the alluded time came, the single "Sleepless in Seattle" was released to major streaming services. Gundersen performed it on KEXP as promised the following morning. Once the song had been out for a few hours, Gundersen elaborated on its meaning, saying that the track chronicled his moving away from Seattle after twelve years in the city. Along with the rest of A Pillar of Salt, "Sleepless in Seattle" was recorded in the titular city by producer Andy Park.

On September 13, Gundersen announced that the full album would be released on October 8, and provided links to pre-order vinyl LP or CD copies. The following day he announced the album would be performed live in its entirety at St. Marks Cathedral in Seattle on December 4.

On September 29, Gundersen outlined an upcoming 2022 Europe/UK Tour in support of A Pillar of Salt. Beginning in March 2022, Gundersen toured for two and a half weeks across Europe, starting in Stockholm and finishing in Dublin.[1]

Release

Physical release

The long single for the album, "Sleepless in Seattle", premiered on streaming services on September 10, 2021. The album released in its entirety on October 8. Physical copies were made available for purchase on Gundersen's online store, and the album is on all major streaming services.[1]

Reception

A Pillar of Salt received widespread critical acclaim. Sputnik Music said that the album "takes ageless topics such as identity, vices, and faith and makes them both deeply personal and widely universal" in its 4.5/5 star review.[2] Gundersen's lyricism was a common theme across positive reviews. In its 8.0/10 review of the album, The Line of Best Fit remarked: "It's a scrapbook of life and its lessons, considered in retrospect by a veteran writer and musician."[3]

Additionally, upon the release of the album Gundersen was featured on Spotify's Grade A playlist as the cover artist. The playlist, which curates what it describes as 'a quality alternative blend', featured "Atlantis" in its October 8 edition.[4]

Despite not being released as a promotional single, "Atlantis" was a major source of media attention for A Pillar of Salt, largely due to the fame of guest vocalist Phoebe Bridgers. British music outlet NME described the track as "somber" and noted the music video, which was shot entirely on an iPhone.[5] KEXP, one of Seattle's largest public radio stations, called the album "a well-crafted set of brooding folk-pop with an atmospheric sound featuring acoustic and electric guitars, piano, haunting melodies and introspective lyrics."[6]

Craig Manning of Chorus.fm called the album "a goddamn masterpiece". He observed in his review that the album served as an amalgamation of qualities from Gundersen's previous discography: "Everything he did well on each of his previous albums is here somewhere, and it all meshes together into a perfect tapestry. The throwback troubadour of Ledges; the thoughtful intellectual of Carry the Ghost; the architect of all those big, bruising crescendos that drove White Noise; the pop polyglot of Lover."[7]

Themes

As with some of Gundersen's previous releases, A Pillar of Salt details personal experiences with relationships, growing older, loneliness, religion, and life in the Seattle, WA area.

The title of the album alludes to Genesis 19, in which Lot's wife was transformed into a pillar of salt after looking back to the city of Sodom, which she was leaving. She defied warnings by God's angels not to look back while she and Lot's family fled, and suffered accordingly. Particularly in the Deluxe Edition's "A Pillar of Salt", Gundersen uses this image to compare her faithless disobedience and worldly interests to his own refusal to place faith in divine fiat.

Like much of his music, A Pillar of Salt depicts Gundersen's earnest ambivalence concerning spiritual issues, in spite of the aching consequences and worry this causes himself and his loved ones. "He is unafraid of irreverently subverting biblical wisdom" in order to ask the question, "What will win in the end: the will of a man... or the unseen powers of providential fate?"[8]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Noah Gundersen

No.TitleLength
1."Laurel and Hardy"4:23
2."Body"3:37
3."The Coast"4:37
4."Exit Signs"4:01
5."Atlantis" (featuring Phoebe Bridgers)5:19
6."Magic Trick"4:01
7."Blankets"3:52
8."Bright Lost Things"5:15
9."Sleepless in Seattle"4:00
10."Back to Me"3:33
11."Always There"3:52
Total length:47:36
Deluxe Edition (2022)
No.TitleLength
12."Part Of Me"3:44
13."The Only Day"3:42
14."A Pillar Of Salt"4:43
Total length:59:45

Personnel
  • Noah Gundersen – vocals, songwriting, piano, guitar
  • Jason McGerr – percussion
  • Andy Park – production
  • Abby Gundersen – strings
  • Tyler Carrol – bass guitar
  • Harrison Whitford – electric guitar
  • Dave Dalton – piano
  • Greg Leisz – pedal steel guitar
  • Phoebe Bridgers – featured vocals
  • Alex Westcoat – percussion
  • Caleb Crosby – percussion
  • Paul Moak – mixing
  • Jordan Butcher – cover art design
  • Lauren Segal – cover art photography
  • Andy Maier – cover art rendering

References
  1. "Noah Gundersen". Noah Gundersen. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
  2. "Noah Gundersen - A Pillar of Salt (album review)". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
  3. "Noah Gundersen centres brooding nostalgia on A Pillar Of Salt". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
  4. Gundersen, Noah [@noahgundersen] (October 8, 2021). "Thank you Spotify for putting Atlantis feat. phoebe_bridgers on your GradeA playlist" (Tweet). Retrieved October 19, 2021 – via Twitter.
  5. "Phoebe Bridgers guests on Noah Gundersen track 'Atlantis'". NME. October 11, 2021. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
  6. "New Music Reviews (10/11)". KEXP.org. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
  7. "Noah Gundersen – A Pillar of Salt". Chorus.fm. October 8, 2021. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
  8. "Love in A Pillar of Salt". Mere Orthodoxy: Christianity, Politics, and Culture. March 2, 2022. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
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