![]() While it's a pleasant enough listen, the entire album falls short of the potential opulence hinted at by its best tracks. ![]() Unfortunately, the album is heavier on Western atmosphere and manicured harmonies than it is inspired hooks. While Lonesome Dreams paints its sound in broad, thoughtful strokes, it's at its best when the arrangements meet up with hooks. Rarely do the two worlds meet in the middle as well as they do on "Time to Run," though mellower tracks like "Ghost on the Shore" and "In the Wind" create more space for the album's softer intricacies. Schneider's affected vocals muddy the waters some as well, taking down some of the album's plentiful bright melodies with a heavy mountain-man accent. Somewhere between the feral experimentation of freak folk, the sunny polyrhythms, and the obligatory references to rocks and trees that come with soul-searching folk-informed indie rock like this, Lord Huron either sound like brilliantly happy tropical indie rock (as on "The Man Who Lives Forever") or under-produced young country (as with the hokey title track). Being of several minds like this is the crux of Lonesome Dreams. The song is beyond catchy and beyond happy, bounding along ecstatically between huge choruses, friendly verses, and experimental found sound breakdowns. However, as soon as the song fades out, "Time to Run" begins with watery field recordings of bells and washy synth tones before bursting into a jubilant slice of acoustic pop owing equal parts to Animal Collective's happy-go-lucky freaked sounds and Paul Simon's Afro-pop-borrowing optimism. The searching harmonies and overblown pondering of nature don't help. As well constructed as the song is, it follows so closely the open-ended indie folk style of Fleet Foxes, My Morning Jacket, and the like that it comes off as a pretty blatant ripoff and little else. The album opens with "Ends of the Earth," a jaunty and triumphant song filled with imagery of rivers, mountains, and arid desertscapes. PIAS, Merlin Redeye Distribution (on behalf of Whispering Pines) CMRRA, Sony Music Publishing, SOLAR Music Rights. The wide-open pastoral feel of the album seems designed to calm the ongoing argument happening with Schneider's songwriting sensibilities, which seem conflicted between jubilant indie pop wanderlust and stoic traditionally structured Americana. Lie where I land, let my bones turn to sand, I was born on the lake and I dont wanna leave. Watch: New Singing Lesson Videos Can Make Anyone A Great Singer. The tale that began on the night of my birth, Will be done in a turn of the earth. Anyways, based on the previews and other stuff, I think their next album is closer to my tastes and I look forward to checking it out.Following two low-profile EPs, Lonesome Dreams is the debut from Michigan-born/Los Angeles-based sound sculptor Ben Schneider and his band Lord Huron. A A The Ghost on the Shore Im just a man, but I know that Im damned, All the dead seem to know where I am. Lie where I land let my bones turn to sand I was born on the lake and I dont want to leave it. Honorable Mentions: Lullaby, Man Who Lives Forever, and their version of Auld Lang Syneĭecided not to rank Not Dead Yet though I really dig it, I dunno where it'll end up in my eventual rankings and I want to compare it to the rest of the album when it comes out before I make a "final" judgment.Īs is probably obvious I wasn't much a fan of Vide Noir, not that it's objectively bad, and it's cool they experimented with a different kind of sound, but it just wasn't my cup of tea - except for Lost in Time and Space, partly because it sounds closer to their previous work and because it came into my life at such a perfect time it's a scary coincidence.įor the other two main albums, I think for Lonesome Dreams the average of my rating for each song is higher, but Strange Trails is the one with more heavy hitters for me and I like its vibe more for various reasons - Fool for Love is probably one of my top favorite songs of my life and I pretty much listen to it everyday for the last few years (also came into my life at a perfect time). Video clip and lyrics The Ghost On The Shore by Lord Huron.
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