ALBUM REVIEW: Love in Every Detail of Buck Meek’s Richly Painted ‘Haunted Mountain’

Buck Meek sees love in everything, it seems. On his latest solo outing, Haunted Mountain, it looks like things both eternal and ephemeral, surrounding him like a hypnotic haze. Jewelry, nature, vistas, drawings, clothing — all become more beautiful, it turns out, when you’re in love, and it’s through this rosy lens that Meek has written these tunes. Working within larger sonic structures than 2021’s spare Two Saviors (ND review), Haunted Mountain’s layered textures of synth and piano lend a voluminous feel to the whole album. Even Meek’s signature soft, lilting harmonies feel their fullest ever, making it easy to fully immerse in this beguiling universe of love.

The idea of a love song, in this case, is wide-ranging. Meek sings just as lovingly about a romantic partner as he does a dear friend or a special place, or when recalling treasured stories his folks have told him. As a songwriter, he slips effortlessly between straightforward narrative and more flowery language in a single song. Meek has a way of making the details of an experience sound like poetry, conjuring a vivid scene with words as well as any 35 mm could. He inhabits a world that constantly teeters on the line between real and fantastical.

Take album opener “Mood Ring,” a fluttering fever dream of falling in love, soaked in rich color. Electric guitars swirl in the similarly colorful heartstopper “Undae Dunes,” a nostalgic memory play of innocent first love, and the love-at-first-sight recollections of “Didn’t Know You Then” sparkle and shimmer. In Meek’s songs, water is deep green, eyes are cool blue, night is silver, skies are red, flowers yellow, putting you in a trance like some sort of synesthesia daydream. There is mysticism in this world, meaning in everything, from a rock to a gesture.

Even under a love spell, Haunted Mountain revels in its most grounded moments, like the rollicking “Cyclades,” the buoyant standout title track, and “The Rainbow,” the album’s gentle finale that seems to wink at it all, as Meek wonders what’s possible “if we believe what we’ve seen.” Haunted Mountain suggests there’s wonder to be found all around, and then celebrates the act of giving yourself over to it without question, only in awe.

Buck Meek’s Haunted Mountain is out Aug. 25 on 4AD.