If recent single, “Away We Go” felt like a glimpse into a parallel world, one built of lush sonics and folkloric tales, seductive soundscapes and fantastic landscapes, then Lonely Wanderer is your fully paid up vacation, guided tour and return ticket to that place. (Should you feel like coming home again)
But it is also one of those times when a release goes way beyond merely an album of music. With the creation of a video stream of the whole album, videos that link together like a book, one full of magical realism and rich imagination, it feels like part cinematic travelogue, part concept album, part musical narratives, and part escapist sensation. It is indeed all that and more.
In this format, choosing your favorite tracks is like picking your favorite chapter of a book or a scene from a film. You can do it, but you do so in the knowledge that such a choice only makes sense in the context of everything around it. But here goes!
“Ghosts Go Home” blends lush, ’80s-infused sonics with a compelling indie-pop addiction. “Pushin’ Through,” the current single, is a neat folk-rock piece, driven by energetic rhythms and shot through with shimmering guitar lines. And by the time we arrive in the “Strange Land,” which marks the journey’s conclusion, we are surrounded by a sonic space built on funky basslines and almost proggy electronica, soulful group harmonies, and chiming guitar coils. It is music that is fantastic in every sense of the word.
Albums should be considered journeys; the art of creating a soundscape for the listener to surf across and immerse themselves in seems to be a dying art in this age, one where artists seem to feel compelled to immediately release any and every sonic thought they have with no thought to a bigger picture.
Lonely Wanderer is not just the art of the bigger picture; it is the alternative picture, the actual, visual picture, the genre-hopping picture, and the escapist picture all rolled into one.
