![]() ![]() Schneider harmonizes with himself via overdubs throughout the album, giving the music a sense of richness. Most of the songs have a strong sense of movement, with “The Man Who Lives Forever” grooving in its own folksy and wistful way. Rather than relying on a traditional rock drum kit, these songs incorporate some (for lack of a better word) world music rhythms, with hand drums, maracas, tambourines, etc. The percussion on Lonesome Dreams is probably the album’s most interesting aspect. ![]() All of those comments make it sound like I’m belittling Lord Huron, but it’s more a playful ribbing. Most songs address either nature or ramblin’/runnin’/wanderin’, topics one would expect from a fictional author whose middle name is Ranger. “Ends of the Earth,” “She Lit A Fire,” “I Will Be Back One Day,” and “In The Wind” all describe a man who has lost a woman, be it through distance, death, or who-knows, and is waiting for either her return to him or his return to her. There are fast gallops (“Time To Run,” “Brother (Last Ride)” and slow ballads (“The Ghost On The Shore,” “In The Wind.”) “Time To Run” and “Lullaby” both describe characters on the lam from unspecified peril we don’t know what they did, but we know it’s bad. The songs on Lonesome Dreams are all fairly similar to each other Schneider has his lane picked out, and he holds to it, both musically and lyrically. George Ranger Johnson, according to his website, who looks just like a hard-drinkin’, pulp novel writin’, not actually existin’ man should look Lonesome Dreams’s cover art encapsulates the feeling: a lone figure atop his horse viewed from afar, riding through a desert with a crescent moon above his head. In fact, many of these songs convey an air of loneliness or solitude, a one-man-against-the-world kind of vibe. There are certainly “epic” moments, but the scale is smaller. Where Mumford, The Lumineers, etc aim for the stadium, Lord Huron’s music is a bit more intimate. His lyrics are unabashedly anachronistic you can imagine them being sung by a person who plays a traveling folksinger at a Civil War reenactment, or something. Schneider sings of moonlit lakes, deserts whose size can’t be measured, sacred dunes, etc, not exactly the kind of relationship ballads you hear from Mumford and the like. He has a website and everything, you can look it up. I mean that in the most affectionate way possible, but hear this: Lonesome Dreams is based on a series of books by George Ranger Johnson, a fictional author created by Schneider. There are several reasons for this relative lack of mainstream exposure.ġ. Other groups like The Lumineers and X Ambassadors became popular in the wake of Mumford, but Lord Huron never got to that level. Both groups are accessible, with catchy melodies delivered by sensitive, bearded singers, and incorporate just enough rustic Americana to differentiate themselves from other groups you hear on so-called alt radio (i.e. Foot-stompin’ English folkies Mumford and Sons blew up in the late 2000s, and Lord Huron seems like an act that could have followed in their footsteps. I had always wondered why Lord Huron (the passion project of LA multi-instrumentalist Ben Schneider) wasn’t more widely known. I’ll get this out of the way first: Lord Huron has transformed from a “my little secret” band to a bit of a guilty pleasure ever since “The Night We Met” (from 2015’s Strange Trails) was featured on the Netflix original 13 Reasons Why, otherwise known as the show that inspired tweens all over America to research suicide on the internet. The fluorescent-lit site of Spring 2014’s Week From Hell However, Lonesome Dreams is a nice slice of folky pop music, incredibly polished for a formerly solo bedroom musician on an indie label. ![]() To this day, I don’t think there has been a Lord Huron song that matches it. Lord Huron is anything but rap, but “The Stranger,” a hazy 6 minute rush of slide guitar, whistlin’, and lively hand drums, became one of my favorite songs. While I searched for most of the music based on recommendations, a video popped up in my Youtube suggestions for a song called “The Stranger” (off the 2010 EP Mighty) by Lord Huron, who I thought was a rapper for some reason I added it to the list. Before this week of doom, I had put together a Youtube playlist filled with music I had never listened to before, so that I’d have something to guide me through. I had never experienced anything like it I holed myself up in the basement of my shitty dorm for hours on end, chugging 7/11 coffee and taking short breaks to watch my roommate chain smoke cigarettes outside the building. When I was a freshman in college (so spring of 2014, I guess), I pulled three all-nighters within the span of a week in order to study for finals. Lord Huron- Lonesome Dreams (2012, Iamsound) ![]()
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