Bluesy but not exactly a blues song, dreamy but not quite dreampop, folky and finessed but powered by more rock and roll energies, “Stories” is a song that walks a fine line between a lot of different sonic sectors, especially when a flute flits and floats through, and things begin to take a wander in a more psychedelic direction.
But that’s what you want from music, a sense of adventure, of uniqueness, of creative feet striding confidently through yet untrammelled sonic pastures new. And, lizardream certainly gives us that here.
“Stories” has so many timeless qualities to it, and lizardream are not a band to follow fashion or fad; instead, they opt for ploughing their own singular furrow through the musical landscape. Guitar lines coil and spiral, bassline neatly adds peripheral melodies, the beats are light, and the vocals are compelling, musical storytelling at its finest.
The song is, as the title suggests, the lyrical memories and reflections of singer Adi Schmidek Barer, a process of musical healing for those adults that she remembers from her childhood, many carrying a heavy sense of loss and longing for a life that they have left behind, a prayer and act of sonic compassion being sent from the present to the past.
To say that lizardream makes a wholly original sound would be the biggest understatement. Theirs is a sound that echoes with the more experimental folk rock bands from a few decades ago, which feels perfect for today’s audience and which will help set the tone for the shape of music to come, not least through its ability to remind everyone that nothing special was ever created by comfort zones, conformity, or complacency.
