I remember paying £11 to see Lord Huron play in a small bar in Northern Ireland as they toured their first album, and saying to a friend, this band are going to be big. Their next tour will see them play The Red Rocks Amphitheater, and The Barbican Centre in London, among other notable venues. Well, you have to be right some of the time!
Lord Huron started life as a solo project from Ben Schneider, and his background as a visual arts student is very evident in the band’s image, identity, and output.
That first album ‘Lonesome Dreams’ was a homage to 70s style western TV shows, and the supporting videos to that release all had that backdrop and cowboy feel to them.
‘Long Lost’ has also had a very clever promotional drive, even before its release, with fans being asked to buy into a concept of the new mysterious radio station WBUB and a series on the station devoted to long lost bands being played “Alive from Whispering Pines”.
It’s all very clever and intriguing but what of the album itself? Well, it’s a fine collection that holds up well to its predecessors.
There’s less of the mid-tempo country-rock feel of say ‘Ends Of The Earth’ or ‘Time To Run’ but more of a soft contemplative feel. That said, there’s enough variation on the album to keep everyone entertained.
In line with the concept idea of the album being played on the radio station, there are short spoken pieces to tie the narrative together. I’m not sure we need to know that…
This young feller coming up next is one helluva performer…
The evidence is quite clear but the added commentary is a bit of fun.
The narrative hangs on being in love, losing in love, longing for love, and a search for one’s self.
There’s a deliberate 1950s/60s country feel to the material, best encapsulated in the dreamy duet between Schneider and Allison Ponthier with their voices blending beautifully to tell a tale of infidelity, deception, and regret.
I told you I’d be coming back again for you but I’m not. I’m going way out where the world will never find me. I made a claim that I would dance until we’re bones with my bride. I told you I would never leave you all alone but I lied.
There’s a melancholic wistfulness to the song that draws the listener into a nostalgic soap opera as it plays out over three verses but you know there’ll be no happy ending in this one.
Schneider’s voice itself is a thing of great versatility and charm, equally at home on the slow lovelorn songs as on the faster-paced tunes, driven along by his bandmates:- Mark Barry on drums, percussion, and vocals, Miguel Briseño on bass, keys, and percussion, and Tom Renaud on guitar, and vocals.
The pop Presley impersonation on ‘Not Dead Yet’ is great fun complete with Elvis’ trademark “uh huhs”.
All messed up with nowhere to go. I stare at myself in the mirror alone. It’s hard to make friends when you’re half in the grave but I ain’t dead yet, and I got something to say. You got holes in your clothes and booze on your breath. You look like hell, and you smell like death. Uh-huh.
The album is full of sparkly little musical trinkets like the beautiful title track and the Shadows-like ‘Mine Forever’.
Personally, I think the album could have done without the 14-minute closing instrumental ‘Time’s Blur’ but it’s a minor quibble, given the rich musical flavours offered before.
It’s quite fun to try and spot the various influences which the band has absorbed and blended into their own from Roy Orbinson, The Band, Elvis Presley of course, and harmonies akin to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young or Fleet foxes. It’s an intriguing mix but there is a definite stamp of authenticity that is now firmly a Lord Huron sound.