Lightouts

“Melding Sonic Youth’s mangled guitars and monotonic vocal sensibilities with a taut and measured rhythm section, these Brooklynites manage to tap into an ever- expanding history of blown-out guitar rock and laconic vocals without feeling like a rehashing of rock’n’roll’s recent past.” - SPIN

Lightouts' finest feat on Wake, apart from the songs themselves, is making time seem to stand still. The urgent pace hits early with nimbly chugging opener “Disappear” and continues on through “Celebrate,” the album's earworm of a crescendo. Along the way, “Yes I Dü” is a Hüskertacular wig-flipper, “Make Believe” grinds gracefully midway into the record, the major chorus in “Victory” backs up the song's big-talking title — and all three drop lyrical throwbacks to Want and its theme of weighing the true worth of certain desires within all of us. The band is tight as a Mason jar throughout, with Fleischmann and Perry locking in and careening around Rhodes' fluidly insistent guitar lines. Atop it all, Nelson's stirring vocals soar and dip like a hungry kingfisher, recalling a “Heroes”-era Bowie at the top of his emotive game.

True to its title, Wake is the sound of Lightouts' rally from an extended nap. Or is it? Perhaps it's a funeral bell, a signal to mourn a loss — something the striking cover art evokes.

Time will tell — whether it seems to stand still or not.