Para Lia - In Clash With The Zeitgeist (About Us Records)

It’s always great when you encounter a band that isn’t swayed by fad or fashion. In a world that seems increasingly driven by likes and celebrity status, chart positions, and followers, it is rare to come across someone who isn’t merely trying to conform to audience wants and industry expectations. But multi-instrumentalist René Methner and vocalist Cindy Methner collectively known as Para Lia do just that. Just the process of being original and non-conformist seems an act of revolution these days. Well, viva la revolution!

I guess the album title tells you everything you need to know, and if I’d started with that, it would have saved the above rambling paragraph. Although a band very much making music that feels at home in the 21st century, their reference points are from earlier golden ages – late eighties indie and sixties psychedelia, raw garage rock attitudes and proggy ornateness, pop accessibility, and rock weight.

A string of sumptuous singles have already trailed this release, “Sunchild’s” almost baggy blend of dance beats and indie grooves, “C’est La Vie” and its bass-driven energy, and the shimmering dream-like “Yellow Rose.” The new single “Mr. Perry” looks to darker post-punk influences, and there is an array of tracks between these releases that could just as easily have been the sonic poster boys for the album.

“What We Always Wanted” is a deft blend of tribal dance beats and swirling guitar breaks, “Will You Ever Find Me” has a nostalgic folk feel to it, and “Nagual” wanders between the understated and the epic.

Some might argue that you have to “give them what they want” when it comes to audience satisfaction. I disagree; the audience generally doesn’t know what they want, which is why they can be easily manipulated by music industry marketing departments and vacuous “influencers” (I hate even typing that word). No, I say give them what they didn’t know they wanted, what they didn’t even realize they needed. Do that, and bands such as Para Lia and albums such as In Clash With The Zeitgeist will get the recognition they deserve.

In Clash With The Zeitgeist album order
Bandcamp
Mr. Perry video
C’est La Vie video
Yellow Rose video