Runnner
Like Dying Stars, We’re Reaching Out
RUN FOR COVER
Have you ever felt stuck in life, unsure of what to do next? That’s exactly what LA-based producer/songwriter Noah Weinman ponders on his label debut under the name Runnner, Like Dying Stars, We’re Reaching Out. The new album comes two years after his folksy self-released Always Repeating, which reimagined some of the previous material he recorded prior to signing with Run for Cover. On Like Dying Stars, Weinman borrows production elements from Always Repeating to create an effervescent soundscape that gently embraces his lyrics of loneliness, hope, insecurity, and anxiety.
While raw feelings can be difficult to articulate, Weinman has the unique skill to communicate his emotional state using metaphors that invoke everyday moments. “Buying dandruff shampoo at the Rite-Aid / Am I making a positive change?” he sings on the album’s fourth track “Raincoat,” a clever, funny, and sad line about being at a crossroads. And on “Running in Place at the Edge of the Map” he sings about fucking up the rice by cooking it too long—a beautifully mundane line illustrating his feelings of deep frustration. But he can also be vulnerable and not obscure his pain behind everyday absurdity. On “Raincoat” he also sings about feeling like a deer caught in the headlights, sparing no details. “I don’t want to live like this forever / But I’m still too scared to die.”
On “I Only Sing About Food,” Weinman addresses feeling overwhelmed and struggling to articulate himself: “I’m an idiot / I cried in your car / When I couldn’t find the words I was looking for.” It may seem like Weinman enjoys reveling in self-pity, but I think Like Dying Stars is deeper than that. The bright chord progressions and ebullient strings used on this record hint at a luminescence that can’t quite be extinguished—and on the song “Bike Again,” that luminescence is a warm memory that can’t be erased. For Weinman, helplessness and nihilism may come, but hope is never gone.
