Album review: THE LUCID DREAM – Songs of Lies and Deceit

THE LUCID DREAM – Songs of Lies and Deceit

Holy Are You Recordings [Release date 01.10.13]

A joyous little collection of reverb mayhem. ‘Songs of Lies and Deceit’ is rooted securely in the quality pop jangle of The Stone Roses and the Jesus and Mary Chain. The Lucid Dream have infected every track of their debut album with enthusiastic, furious, echo-laden psychedelia.

There’s a bit more going on beneath though. The excellent ‘Love In My Veins’ starts off like a hillbilly stomp until the reedy, heavily distorted nasal vocals kick in and the keys and guitar combine to sweep the track noisily into Killing Joke territory.

Sometimes there is a goth nod to the likes of The Mission in the nagging bass lines of album opener, the spectacular ‘How’s Your Low When You’re Low Alone?’. Sometimes it’s the distorted sitar that catches the ear, as in ‘The Twighlight End’ where it pours over waves of guitar and vocal harmony to induce worrying transcendental leanings.

But mostly, it is the vocal hooks, the echoed and chopped Rickenbacker montages and the thick synth loops blended in with some achingly pretty melodies – check out ‘In Your Eyes’ – that give this album its signature psychy flavour.

‘Sweet Hold On Me’ is a natural album closer, a nine-minute trip of majestic space rock, where the band stretch out, change pace and create walls of noise like The Wedding Present never went away.

The band, hailing from Carlisle in Cumbria, sound like they are enjoying themselves. Mark Emmerson, voice, guitar and keys also writes most of the songs and he has a good feel for what works. He has immersed himself in an unashamedly retro sound. The 90’s references drip and trip over each other in their efforts to spill raucously out of the speaker. But that’s no criticism. The Lucid Dream deliver with a refreshing sincerity and this is a spanking debut.

****

Review by Dave Atkinson

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Power Plays w/c 11 November 2024

ARCANE MOON Hello Sun (indie)
S8NT ELEKTRIC XTC (Long Branch Records)
ARCANA KINGS Here We Go (Curtain Call Records)
KLOGR face The Unknown (Zeta Factory)
BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

Featured Albums w/c 11 November 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)