Lanterns On The Lake — Until The Colours Run

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Lanterns On The Lake — Until The Colours Run
Ξ   English sextet that combines dreamy indie rock with luscious melodies and poignant storytelling.
Ξ   "Lanterns On The Lake have sculpted a record that's sodden with emotional fragments — it's angry, scared, sad at a great many moments, but you'll also feel emboldened by the experience of Until The Colours Run. It drags a courage from you. It's uplifting in the strangest ways, even set against the backdrop of crumbling societies, and you'll emerge from listening to it being able to stand tall." — Larry Day
Formed: 2008
Location: Newcastle, England, UK
Album release: October 7, 2013
Record Label: Bella Union
Duration:     42:25
Tracks:
01. Elodie      (4:25)
02. The Buffalo Days      (4:08)
03. The Ghost That Sleeps In Me      (4:37)
04. Until The Colours Run      (5:30)
05. Green & Gold      (5:14)
06. You Soon Learn      (5:05)
07. Picture Show      (4:40)
08. Another Tale From Another English Town      (5:16)
09. Our Cool Decay      (3:30)
Members:
Ξ Hazel Wilde — vocals, guitar, piano
Ξ Paul Gregory — guitar, backing vocals, laptop
Ξ Oliver Ketteringham — drums, piano
Ξ Sarah Kemp — violin, accordion
Ξ Andrew Scrogham — bass
Past members:
Ξ Brendan Sykes — bass
Ξ Adam Sykes — vocals, guitar, piano
REVIEW
By John Murphy | 7 October 2013 | Rating: ****
Ξ With sustained excellence in its release schedule for the last several years, Bella Union appears to have joined the likes of 4AD and Moshi Moshi where simply the label’s name is a guarantee of quality. Simon Raymonde and his team have already released the likes of John Grant, Fleet Foxes and Beach House, and two years ago introduced us to Newcastle quintet Lanterns On The Lake‘s debut album Gracious Tide, Take Me Home.
Ξ That debut was a startling record in many ways — Paul Gregory’s powerful arrangements had echoes of the likes of Sigur Rós and Arcade Fire, and proved the perfect counterpoint to Hazel Wilde’s fragile yet powerful vocals. Until The Colours Run is the follow-up and is more of the same blissful stuff, although with a subtle shift in the band dynamic.
Ξ This time round, the band are without brothers Brendan and Adam Sykes, who left last year, and there’s more focus on Wilde as well — on the debut album, Gregory would sometimes take lead vocals, but on Until The Colours Run, Wilde takes centre stage on every track. It’s a canny move, for Wilde’s voice is startlingly good and often sounds quite haunting amidst the soundscapes on display.
Ξ Elodie makes for an exhilarating opening to the album, a symphony of instruments almost galloping in, before quietly hushing in time for Wilde’s voice to make itself heard. The intensity of the instrumentation is surprisingly emotional, and it’s easy to see why Lanterns On The Lake have toured with sometime labelmates Explosions In The Sky — they share a common talent for making the epic sound beautifully intimate.
Ξ It’s that intimate quality which keeps you coming back to Until The Colours Run. The Ghost That Sleeps In Me begins in frail and haunting fashion, before suddenly roaring out of the speakers in muscular fashion. Green And Gold is probably the most restrained moment on the album, a gorgeous piano ballad with Wilde sounding for all the world like Hope Sandoval from Mazzy Star.
Ξ The lyrics throughout are pretty abstract, although the standout Another Tale From Another English Town is the most explicitly political song — a stark condemnation on the politics of austerity and the effect they’ve had on the band’s hometown of Newcastle — “We’ve been sold a thousand lies, we just wanted the quiet life, but they won’t stop until they see us in the ground”. It’s languid and sad, but also has a resolutely determined quality.
Ξ The title track seems to tackle similar issues (“So we’ll drink and we’ll sing on the breadline until the colours run”) but in a more uplifting way, with a sound reminiscent of early Arcade Fire, and there’s several moments, such as Picture Show, that produce the same feeling of ‘goosebumps down the spine’ that Elbow‘s first album Asleep At The Back did so well.
Ξ The only thing that Until The Colours Run misses is possibly a big crossover single, but frankly Lanterns On The Lake don’t need one. This is a gloriously atmospheric second album from a band who will surely soon be as lauded and acclaimed as their better-known labelmates.
Fortaken: http://www.musicomh.com/
In french:
Ξ "Un second album aussi charmant que le premier, de ce groupe originaire de Newcsatle. Pour celles et ceux qui aiment les ambiances musicales délicates et sophistiquées. Recommandé.
Also:
By Larry Day | 09 September 2013 | Rating: 7/10
http://thefourohfive.com/review/article/lanterns-on-the-lake-until-the-colours-run
By Sharon Watters | 24 September 2013 | Rating: 8.0
http://www.bowlegsmusic.com/album-reviews/lanterns-on-the-lake-until-the-colours-run-2-32675
BY RICH THANE, 27 AUGUST 2013
•• http://thelineofbestfit.com/new-music/song-of-the-day/lanterns-on-the-lake-until-the-colours-run-135678
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REVIEW
Review by Scott Kerr | Rating: ****
Ξ After the release of their wonderful 2011 debut, Gracious Tide, Take Me Home, Lanterns on the Lake dropped off the radar as personal and financial strife took over. Ξ The wonderful cinematic soundscapes on second album Until the Colours Run are less focused on the hometown musings that dominated their first effort; here they delve deeper into darker, introspective moods that unfurl into surging guitars and rolling drums reminiscent of Explosions in the Sky, while Paul Gregory's arrangements nod toward the foraging chamber pop of Arcade Fire — complete with occasional keys, strings, and horns. One slight change that makes a striking difference was giving Hazel Wilde full vocal control. She'd previously shared vocal duties with Gregory, but here her haunting, hushed tones alone fills the empty spaces with delicate melodies that swirl gently between the ethereal instrumentation. Created during a time of austerity in the U.K., Until the Colours Run struggles between exuberant musical expressions and the sense of frustration, disappointment, and sadness that manifests in Wilde's lyrics. This is perfectly exemplified in the two-toned "Another Tale from Another English Town," which broods and twists into a frenzy of strings and guitars, while Wilde laments "we've been sold a thousand lies this year." Much of the praise for their debut was their ability to produce beautiful, slow-burning tracks, and "Picture Show" draws into a steady, hypnotic lull here, while "The Buffalo Days" personifies the unsettled and demoralized atmosphere that dominates the album. Intimate piano ballad "Green and Gold" was recorded in one live take by Wilde. Using the natural imperfections of a live recording — from the studio cleaner gently shutting the door midway to the unforced breaks in Wilde's voice — the track encapsulates the genuine heartbreak and lament her lyrics convey. Lanterns on the Lake allow themselves to build on and expand the sound of their debut for Until the Colours Run, bursting open at times with purpose, while drawing on the cinematic sounds and folk storytelling that bind together a magnificent collection of tracks. Fortaken: http://www.allmusic.com/
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Ξ Finding inspiration in your surroundings works best if your surroundings are actually some of the most naturally beautiful landscapes that the UK has to offer.
Ξ Finding their muse in the dramatic coastal scenes of the North East, The Lanterns On The Lake allowed these poetic, allusive landscapes to filter into their work.
Ξ Debut album 'Gracious Tide, Take Me Home' was a beautifully intricate work, melting together personal, philosophical lyrics with an orchestral flair. For the follow up, the band have continued to look around them — yet this time, the atmosphere is darker.
Ξ Written against a background of job cuts, protests and uncertainty, 'Until The Colours Run' is a fiercely defiant, impassioned attempt to mourn the loss of youthful innocence.
Ξ Out on October 7th, you can listen to the new album from Lanterns On The Lake first on Clash. To accompany the stream, lyricist Hazel Wilde has penned a short introduction and a full track-by-track guide...
Ξ "'Until The Colours Run' is anxious and introverted at times but at other times it’s bursting with life and feels confident and bold. It has colour in its veins and a dark heart beating at its core. It’s difficult to sum up each song in a series of short paragraphs but I‘ve done my very best to give a glimpse into each one…"
Elodie
Ξ We felt this was a good way to open the album with that feedback leading in to the soaring guitars and accordion. We wanted it to be a contrast to the last record in how we opened this one. I love Andy’s bass line in those instrumental sections together with the drums — it’s like a fallen soldier dragging himself through the mud. This one was recorded as live as possible while we were all playing in this old school hall where we did most of the recording. I played Ol’s battered old upright piano on this too — it was perfect for this song, it needed to feel like a dishevelled tale from the past in those verses.
The Buffalo Days
Ξ I suppose this is quite a dark song; even from the opening line “when this started, I was living like an animal and I didn’t have a hope in hell” — that felt like an ugly lyric to use to open a song but I went with it because it was raw and it was honest. Then there’s that almost African guitar melody that leads us through the end section. This song has a feeling of a dark desperation about it whilst somehow also being colourful and bold.
The Ghost That Sleeps In Me
Ξ I think there was probably a lot of underlying worries amongst us about where things were going for us in the future while we were writing this record. For me, I feel like this song reflects some of those difficulties involved in being in a band in this day and age. It’s about that fading spirit inside you when you’ve been working towards something that you love for so long and you feel that you’re forgetting the reason why you started in the first place. For the most part it feels like a fairly fragile, introverted and intimate song and then there is the bursting of life in the music; guitars, drums, strings, brass. It crashes out of the darkness in a glorious, dramatic twist to the plot — the drunk and bitter divorcee at a party dancing in the middle of the room with their fist in the air. Actually, while we were recording that section we were in the hall, it was about 1am in the freezing cold winter so we made a load of mulled wine to keep ourselves warm — I think we were probably pretty drunk when we recorded that part.
Until The Colours Run
Ξ This song went through a few transformations while we were writing the album and demoing things as we went along. It was one of the first songs we had for this record. Ξ The second part of the song has a totally different feel to the first — Paul’s vocals have this real heart-breaking feel to them when they come in on this section.
Green & Gold
Ξ I recorded the piano and vocals at the same time just as a live take when I was in our rehearsal room on my own one day. I think on the track you can just about hear the cleaner in the building opening the back door when she went for a fag. I’d just finished writing this song and it felt important to capture the feeling of it while it was still fresh to me. We ended up just using this ‘demo’ as the album version because sometimes you don’t want to make things perfect — you just want to capture that moment. The piano is a beautiful old baby grand piano which we keep in our rehearsal room. This is quite a personal song and it still feels quite raw to me on the few times that I’ve played it live.
You Soon Learn
Ξ When I was a kid I used to pass this house on the way to school every day where this eccentric writer lived and on his roof he had affixed a huge cast iron sign that read ‘keep both feet firmly in the clouds’. This song could be the story of a couple of teenagers who have that desire to escape their hometown’s attitudes and make something of themselves, but ultimately they end up getting sucked in to everything they were against. I love the guitar sounds on this song — they’re kind of odd. The strings and drums make it almost feel like a celebration despite the dark content in the lyrics — I suppose that’s one of the many contradictions on this record.
Picture Show
Ξ You could say this was bonus of suffering from insomnia while we were working on the record. The words probably seem very vague to people but it’s really about the thoughts you have at 4am when you haven’t slept properly for days and you feel like you’ve barely got a grip on life. The crackles that make up the almost ‘beat’ of the song are actually Sarah’s log fire that Paul recorded one night and worked into the song to give it a subtle rhythm. He’s lucky he didn’t set fire to the microphone. The bowed guitar and plucked strings give it a real haunting quality.
Another Tale From Another English Town
Ξ This is a tale of frustration and disappointment, of austerity and of being sight and out of mind. We recorded the most part of this one in the hall playing live together. Ξ Sonically, I think the first half of the song captures that feeling of frustration and the second half captures that feeling of being down-trodden.
Our Cool Decay
Ξ I heard Paul playing this beautiful guitar part one day and recorded it on my phone so we didn’t forget it. I then came across it while we were working on the record so we decided to turn it into a song. I suppose this was an unusual choice to close the album but it seems to make sense to end it in this way. It takes a step back from what feels like quite an intense record and looks back down at it all from above.
Fortaken: http://www.clashmusic.com/
Website: http://lanternsonthelake.com/
Deezer: http://www.deezer.com/en/album/7000466
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lanternstalk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LanternsOnTheLake
Press: (online)
Agent: Steve Strange: / USA: Matt Hickey —
Discography:
Albums and EPs:
Ξ The Starlight EP (EP, 2008)
Ξ Misfortunes and Minor Victories (EP, 2009)
Ξ Gracious Tide, Take Me Home (LP, September 2011)
Ξ Exclusive Rough Trade Bonus EP released with Gracious Tide, Take Me Home (EP, 2011)
Ξ Low Tide (Remix EP, April 2012)
Ξ Until The Colours Run (LP, October 2013)
Singles:
Ξ "Lungs Quicken" (2010)
Ξ "Keep On Trying" (2011)
Ξ "Another Tale From Another English Town" (2013)
Ξ "Until The Colours Run" (2013) © Hazel Wilde, Lanterns On The Lake, Electric Picnic, Cosby Stage, Photographer: Gaëlle
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