Album Reviews |

Lightspeed Champion



Falling Off The Lavender Bridge 8 ( 2008 )
Number One / Galaxy Of The Lost / Tell Me What It's Worth / All To Shit / Midnight Surprise / Devil Tricks For A Bitch / I Could Have Done This Myself / Salty Water / Dry Lips / Everyone I Know Is Listening To Crunk / Let The Bitches Die / No Suprises (For Wendela)-Midnight Surprise

Are these lyrics that are merely modern or are these lyrics merely not very good? We'll answer the question later on. First up for discussion is a little history. Test Icicles were a punkish band who never really caught on with me. They didn't sound distinctive and really, I suspect, were pretty rubbish. Well, so my sources tell me. Dev Hynes reinvention therefore as lush pop acoustic troubadour is something every single article on Lightspeed Champion, of course, has to have mentioned. Things I like about him straightaway. The album is around the golden album length of forty five minutes, thus a plus point for Lightspeed there. The cover art of the album and singles have been distinctive, another good point. The songs on the album often have multiple parts yet the album still manages to be cohesive. That's clearly another big plus. Indeed, early impressions bring to mind Badly Drawn Boy. Don't be put off by that comparison, because 'Falling Off The Lavender Bridge' is better than anything Badly Drawn Boy has released recently. 'Galaxy Of The Lost' is the lead single, appearing after a brief twenty-four second interlude has opened the album. A burst of strings as Hynes emotes, then a brief sequence of attractive acoustic before the song gets going properly. It turns into quite a catchy little number, perfectly formed pop music with fairly interesting and clever lyrics. The sound of Lightspeed Champion is fully produced pop/rock with indie/alternative leanings. It's firmly on the alternative side of the fence, yet you get the impression that with the right song he could certainly make a connection with the masses.

'Midnight Surprise' is an ambitious, glorious ten minutes. Utterly beautiful from a musical construction point of view and the sounds are here, from Country to Steely Dan to singer/songwriter to left-field pop through to Beatles-pop. It does contain the rather unfortunate line wake up and smell the semen but we'll try and let him off that. 'Dry Lips' is another highlight, although this time, only four minutes long. Well, 'only' four minutes! What's good about 'Midnight Surprise' is how cohesive it sounds for a multi-section song and also how this ten minute epic in the middle of the album doesn't unbalance things. So, the flip side is a song like 'Dry Lips', nice little guitar melodies leading to a great outro that makes my skin go all funny. In a good way, obviously. So, short lyrical lines, rarely drawing the listener in emotionally. A few more songs like 'Salty Water' are needed, a lonesome sounding piano framing his mournings. It's really nice. Yet, he show's cleverness lyrically all over the place, just.... he's not quite there yet. That's good though, this is only his debut after all. A damn fine coffee, drink it at suppertime and bathe in autumnal light.

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Readers Comments Mike Mc Nice review. I've listened to this alot and was so surprised at what I'm gettin! Not just another album that fits in with what music is at the moment but someone who wants to excell himself musically, My favourite album of 2008. So far