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May 30, 2018 Web Exclusive By Ben Jardine

As spontaneous in process as in final result, LUMP, the new collaboration between Laura Marling and Tunng’s Mike Lindsay, is remarkably fresh and hauntingly irresistible. The duo’s self-titled debut album, LUMP, feels shrouded in mythology: like the cover, which presents the album’s protagonist (a yeti-like creature that Marling and Lindsay affectionately play music for); and the lyrics themselves, which Marling sings as if recalling a dream.

According to more legend, Marling and Lindsay met outside of the O2 Arena in London, whilst Marling was supporting Neil Young in June 2016. The pair hit it off and two days later, they were in Lindsay’s London studio-Marling wrote and recorded all of the vocal parts within a week, Lindsay wrote the music. The album’s production was collaborated on and finished by the end of 2016, then it sat dormant for close to two years while Marling was finishing up other projects. Prior to LUMP‘s proper release, the group shared a music video for the first single, “Curse of the Contemporary”—which features our yeti friend expressively dancing to his heart’s content.

The album’s second single, “Late to the Flight,” reverses the rhythms of “Contemporary” and opts for a more insular atmosphere as the opening song. Marling’s lyrics are delivered in a stream-of-consciousness style, and as the track progresses, one can start to get a sense of the sheer ingenuity of this record. Second track, “May I Be the Light,” continues in this atmospheric narrative, with a slowly building crescendo that dissipates into the next track, the loosely engaging “Rolling Thunder.”

These six tracks (seven if you count the two minutes in which Marling reads album credits) are in the same key, a technique that creates a seamless sense of direction for the record. LUMP, it seems, is a creature of its own will: a living, breathing piece of art. (www.lump.bandcamp.com)

Author rating: 7.5/10