On his debut solo album Forever Overhead, Baker warmly welcomes you to it. The first
words we hear him sing, on the first single “Dance,” is akin to a toast: “here’s to the other
side.” What follows are eleven songs that centre on kinship and show that Baker’s sharp
songwriting, the heart of Hey Rosetta!, is as affecting as ever.
When writing the album, Baker drew from 70s songwriters, like Jackson Browne and Randy
Newman, whose music filled his childhood home and from his contemporaries (Feist, Leif
Vollebekk, The Barr Brothers). Produced by Marcus Paquin (The National, Local Natives),
Forever Overhead blends piano ballads with ebullient folk-rock tracks featuring Liam O’Neill
(Suuns), Ben Whiteley (The Weather Station), as well as Mishka Stein & Joe Grass (Patrick
Watson).
In the album’s opening track “Dance,” Baker moves alongside soft piano chords as buoyant,
70s pop style instrumentation and a piercing guitar riff steadily build, bolstering his words of
longing. He sings of connectivity and the tender emotions that are coupled with glances
across a gym’s confetti-lined linoleum floor, the air thick with potential. Like Forever
Overhead as a whole, Baker brings beauty and hope into listeners’ lives.
