Lanterns on the Lake: Beings (Bella Union) Review

Lanterns on the Lake

Beings

Bella Union

Nov 24, 2015 Lanterns on the Lake By Zach Hollwedel

Two years since Until the Colours Run debuted, U.K.-based quartet Lanterns on the Lake returns with their third full-length album. Much like its predecessor, Beings opens with lead-singer Hazel Wilde’s haunting vocal work, this time on “Of Dust & Matter.” Such a song title might come across as grandiose, but it’s befitting of the record, which has the difficult to describe trait of sounding like a self-contained epic. The songs that comprise it are poignant, simultaneously sweeping and extremely intimate, and filled with transportive powers. Wilde’s ethereal lead vocals, coupled with Paul Gregory, Oliver Ketteringham, and Bob Allan’s guitar, drums and piano, and bass, respectively, impart the fugue—like sensation of waking from—or entering-a walking dream.

Throughout the 10-track, 42-minute album, Wilde’s voice consistently reverberates as though she were right there in the room with you-even while sending you a million miles away. “The Crawl” is a gorgeous, introspective song not easily forgotten. Then, not much later, “Through the Cellar Door” is a jolting return to Earth, as unexpected and unsettling—though in no way discordant—as whatever might lie beyond its eponymous basement threshold. Wilde sets the mic down during “Inkblot”—the only purely instrumental track on the album-—which familiarly recalls Explosions in the Sky (Lanterns on the Lake has supported Explosions in the Sky on tour in the past). The four-piece group developed the record in isolation, secluding themselves in a room in Newcastle, England—and the effort paid off. The resulting album is one free from distraction, an out-of-body journey best experienced alone, at least at first. Put on your noise canceling headphones, sink into your most comfortable chair, and immerse yourself in this beautiful, otherworldly music. (www.lanternsonthelake.com)

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