Album Review: Amanda Rheaume, The Spaces In Between

The Spaces In Between by Amanda Rheaume is an honest, introspective, exploration of identity, unfolding across thirteen blended folk and rock songs that tell an important story.  

Interwoven throughout the album are four interludes in which Métis rights leader and activist Tony Belcourt provides history of who the Métis peoples are, the attempted erasure of their history through repeated injustices and deep-rooted discrimination at the hands of the Canadian government, and its effects still seen to this day. Rheaume follows each interlude with an apropos number that not only speaks to the realities raised by Belcourt, but also stirs up and offers thoughts on how to proceed going forward. This is beautifully exemplified in the accompanying track to “Interlude 3”, where Belcourt discusses how Métis children today are unaware of the historic relationship that existed between their peoples, and how that relationship was broken generations ago. What follows is “Right By Your Side”, an anthem of hope, resilience, belief and promise in a greater future that starts with the younger generation. As the title of track four, “Death of the American Dream” proposes, perhaps it is the American dream that needs to pass away in order for something worth dreaming to be realized and actualized.

The final piece, “All Sides of Me”, presents various questions of self and identity that the listener is likely to find theirselves identifying with. This culmination hearkens to the opening track, “The Spaces In Between”, leaving the listener to contemplate not only what was learned of Rheaume and Métis peoples throughout, but also of oneself, relation to the bigger picture and joyful existence in the spaces in between – spaces that this album so wonderfully helps to illuminate.

The Spaces In Between was released on May 27, 2022 by Ishkode Records, a new Indigenous women-owned label that Rheaume co-founded and co-runs with Shoshona Kish. Listen to it here.