The third part of Sondre Lerche’s “P Trilogy” of albums is one of his most sophisticated yet experimental works, and it ends up being one of his best. After going through another breakup with his girlfriend of 7 years, Lerche writes about similar themes to his divorce-concept-album Please - without the same rawness, yet with more maturity to show how he has continued to evolve as a songwriter. I can think of few artists who continue to sound this fresh and unpredictable by their 9th studio album.
On title track “Patience”, Lerche transitions into an unprecedented section, a spoken word piece, over an ethereal and catchy instrumental where Chris Holm’s bass line truly stands out. “A woman on the verge of tears after midnight in a parking lot in Denver told me in confidence: / You should be on The Voice! Adam would love you. / And I thought: shrug emoji, shrug emoji…wind blows through a field of green…purple heart / We can only take so much / But some have to take so much more”. This particular part may seem cringeworthy on the surface, but on a deeper level, Lerche contrasts his persona that his American audience perceives him with to his private life. The reference to The Voice will likely make old fans chuckle, as Lerche was a judge on Norway’s version of The Voice; he can only shrug off fans’ inability to know every side of him. The surprising thing is that Lerche is as expressive as a celebrity can be on social media, constantly tweeting, posting pictures, and Instagram-vlogging about his life experiences, yet he was always extremely private about his relationship with his girlfriend, as they very rarely talked about each other online. The truth about Lerche’s romance only shows itself through his nakedly personal lyrics.
This theme of donning a disguise that covers up a secret problem in one’s love life presents itself throughout Patience and paints a picture of a couple being as close to each other as they can be, living in the same space, trying to find fulfillment in love, yet the both of them knowing they are truly living alone without saying a word about it to each other. On “At Times We Live Alone” from Please, Lerche sang “At times we live alone with our love / You’re not the first to find you need a lifetime of your own”, stressing the need for individual time within a marriage. “Can you imagine anybody else so close to you, it hurts?” (“Legends”). Yet on Patience, Lerche finds that physical closeness can also be ultimately unrewarding and still lead to inevitable feelings of spiritual loneliness.
“Love is upon us
Two bodies fit
Our minds align but in the end we must admit
There is no certain thing except that we will die alone”
Another unprecedented feature on the album is the 30-second interlude “There Is No Certain Thing”, which could have been a full song, but instead sounds like it was recorded as soon as he came up with it, which was in the best way possible - a highly emotionally vulnerable state, surrounded by ominous ambient sounds. His voice, while normally powerful, is gentle and nearly broken. This transitions into the smoother, lyrically depressing “Are We Alone Now”.
“That’s All There Is” weaves in another common theme to the relationship, which is grief. The song is dedicated to Johannes Greve Muskat, a director of a few of Lerche’s music videos, who unexpectedly passed away in May of 2019. The rest of the album shows that a tragedy has struck the couple that damages the love in their relationship. The song in question is remarkably similar to “That’s Us/Wild Combination” by Arthur Russell, yet different enough that I can appreciate Sondre doing an homage to one of my favorite songs without copying it completely.
“Put The Camera Down”, which continues themes of relationship troubles and disguises, has been utterly transformed from its acoustic demo, which was originally a bonus track on Please in 2014. The reworking of the song into gorgeous, psychedelic strings represents how the song was originally written about Lerche’s dysfunctional marriage, but now has a different context of Lerche’s second broken relationship. This is followed by “Why Would I Let You Go”, which is the centerpiece/masterpiece of the album, or perhaps this album’s “Sentimentalist” (from Please, which I consider his best song). “And in my dreams I have the strength / To not keep love at an arm’s length”
“I Can’t See Myself Without You” reminds me of “Bad Law” and “Screen Door”, both about Lerche’s previous breakup, with themes of the inability to separate one’s wrongdoings from romantic love. “Darling of mine / I slipped into the faceless pack / like I just shot someone in the back / Darling, oh darling / If temptation creates the thief / The pleasure cannot match the grief”. The song is a stylistic standout, resembling Lerche’s old music, as well as country pop, bridging the experimental tendencies of the album with his ability to write catchy tunes.
While Lerche’s albums from the 2000s were a celebration of the joys of love, “Don’t Waste Your Time” feels like a sarcastic mockery of his own optimism. “Don’t waste your time on love / You should embrace lack thereof”. On “Why Did I Write The Book of Love”, Lerche experiments again by letting his Brazilian influences shine fully. His music was always influenced by Brazilian bossa nova guitar styles, but he usually combined it with western musical elements; this song instead goes full-on bossa nova with a dancey rhythm and lush flute arrangements. Lyrically, Lerche recognizes his own failure to follow his ideal model for a relationship that must have come out of his disappointments from his marriage. “Why did I write the book of love before I knew your name? / Why did I memorize the rules but never play the game?”
“My Love Is Hard To Explain” is the conclusion that he eventually reaches as the relationship ends. One’s love may be convenient, and you may feel close to a person - making it a theoretical perfect relationship - yet there could always be some unexplainable missing variable. “I don’t know what I’ll do without you / You’re easy to love / But my love is hard to explain / Like unresolved stars / Love burns us from afar”. Overall, while not every song may not be as melodically or sonically complex as Lerche’s best work (Pleasure, Please, Phantom Punch), his experiments on the best tracks on Patience and its infinitely wise lyrical themes still show growth as a songwriter and as a person.
Rating: 4.5/5
