Other Lives is an Oklahoma-bred outfit fronted by Jesse Tabish. On emerging from back in 2011 with the sweeping, widescreen arrangements and haunting, wistful melodies of their debut album Tamer Animals, Other Lives (Tabish on piano, guitar, lead vocals; Jonathon Mooney on piano, violin, guitar, percussion, trumpet; and Josh Onstott on bass, keys, percussion, guitar and b/vocals) had an uncanny ability to evoke the wide-open space, big skies and broad horizons of their home state’s prairies. A reignited sense of freedom is palpable throughout For Their Love, their 2020 release, whether pared back, sombre resignation, or upbeat, rousing and liberating. Out of personal and creative uncertainty and recalibration the trio have re-emerged with a pastoral sensation reborn.

Self-produced, For Their Love sees Tabish and his bandmates less inclined to over-finesse. The resultant tracks show the band “trying to capture the vibe of something altogether more instant. I was adamant there would no tricks and nothing to obscure me which I had been doing psychologically and musically,” says Tabish.

Joined again by drummer Danny Reisch, who played on Rituals, the band is bolstered by an array of musicians featuring strings, brass and percussion, as well as Kim Tabish and Onstott contributing choral-style backing vocals reinforcing the overall cinematic feel that permeates the album.

“The album is a record reflecting human feeling in the current state of affairs — economy and politics on the individual, while the latter still has to deal with the basic struggles of finding meaning of their existence,” says Tabish. “Money, love, and death are always real and hard to cope with: what does the individual choose to make these larger themes of life easier to deal with? The record speaks in realness, questions, observing, lamenting and hopefully finding the slightest of hope in themselves, these characters sometimes venturing out into spiritual, religious or institutionalized endeavors. In my personal hope, only finding their self-worth is more important than anything that has been taught or preached to them.”