Review & Track Premiere: Lord Loud, Passé Paranoia
[Click play above to stream ‘Moths to Light’ from Lord Loud’s debut album, Passé Paranoia, out April 18 on King Volume Records.]
It doesn’t necessarily present this way superficially, but among the most striking aspects of Passé Paranoia is the balance it strikes between its influences and the varying sides of its sound that is emerging from them. That is, one can listen to the King Volume Records-delivered debut full-length from Van Nuys duo Lord Loud and take it as a mostly-uptempo fuzz rocker, or one can dig deeper into what guitarist/vocalist Chris Allison and drummer/vocalist Michael Feld are doing across its garage-inflected nine tracks/33 minutes.
Either pays dividends, frankly. Following up their 2015 In EP (discussed here), Lord Loud have the hooks and groove to catch attention on a quick runthrough. But if one is willing to really listen to the turns in songs like “They are Coming” or the earlier “The Givers,” there’s more to be found there in atmosphere and execution than might elicit a, “hey, cool rock brah,” if you were at the show. Where some cuts offer jangle — opener “Dream Weaver,” “The Givers,” “The Hand” — and others righteous fuzz — “Eyes Have Hands,” “The Wolf,” the penultimate “Moths to Light” — and still others moments of pure psychedelic drift — the rolling “Star Bright Eyes,” the minimal “They are Coming” and the payoff of closer “Swirling” — it’s the ways in which these songs interact with each other and within themselves that really make Lord Loud‘s work stand out. In other words, the balance.
No doubt inspiration is culled from modern garage rock on both the indie and heavy sides of that coin, but there’s a classic sensibility at work as well that comes through particularly in the sans-frills structures of pieces like “Eyes Have Hands,” “The Wolf” and even “Moths to Light” — which, at 4:18, is among the longer inclusions, where the other two are shorter. And while Allison and Feld would in no way be the first modern garage-psych-fuzz band to nod in the direction of 13th Floor Elevators and others of that ilk, to listen to the Dead Meadow roll of “Eyes Have Hands” pick up from “Dream Weaver” at the outset of Passé Paranoia, it becomes even more apparent the two-piece are working in a somewhat broader context.
Tempos shift easily throughout the album, the production is raw enough to bury the vocals and rough-up Feld‘s drum sound, but not so raw that the changes in guitar tone don’t carry across between “Eyes Have Hands,” “The Givers” and “The Wolf” en route to the slowdown of “Star Bright Eyes” that, presumably, serves to close out side A following a considerable build of momentum through the first four tracks. It and “Swirling” at the end of side B are the only songs to top five minutes on Passé Paranoia, so that mirroring would make sense, at least, and as the centerpiece of the tracklisting, “Star Bright Eyes” is meant to feature either way; a position earned through a combination of fluidity, breadth and impact. When Lord Loud want to, they’re able to spread their sound wide — as they do by layering lead lines over deep-toned low-end fuzz late in “Star Bright Eyes” — but they’re also keen at times to rein that in quickly and pursue something leaner, which the 2:22 “The Hand” would seem to signify as it revitalizes the push of Passé Paranoia at the start of the album’s second half.
But even with “The Hand,” when one hears it in relation to “Star Bright Eyes” prior, the context changes. It has its own late solo, ended cold, and while taken on its own that might not mean much, in light of Passé Paranoia as a whole, it’s an example of Lord Loud putting elements to use in a variety of ways. The same idea used to make a different song. Especially with this as their debut full-length, that’s an important aspect of what they’re doing, because it demonstrates that while they might come across as loose and swinging and all blown-out swagger and proto-punk whatnot, there’s conceptual effort put into both the songwriting and the actual construction of the record, which takes another turn with the minimalist early going of “They are Coming,” Feld not even kicking in on drums until two of the track’s three minutes have passed.
I wouldn’t go as far as to call it progressive, and neither do I think it’s trying to be (yet), but it shows Lord Loud are at least thinking about what they’re doing. They follow “They are Coming” with “Moths to Light,” one of Passé Paranoia‘s strongest hooks and most blasted-out riffs; a blend that serves well to represent a decent swath of the record’s style, including the psych vibes in its wah-soaked finishing solo. This gives way to the relative stomp of “Swirling,” which delivers the title line en route to the aforementioned final push and boasts a melodic depth in its vocals and dream-toned fuzz guitar that is among the most welcome elements yet from Lord Loud.
Could it be the band showing off late that they’re willing to toy with pop as they move into Beatlesian piano and la-la-la bounce along with their fuzz and true-to-the-title swirl? Possible. Given the consciousness on display elsewhere, I’d believe it, but either way, their work in defiant expansion of the two-piece form is just one more manner in which Passé Paranoia conveys the sense of freedom it feels not to be bound by either how many instruments one person can hold at a time — though with samplers and laptops, Feld and Allison aren’t doing anything here that couldn’t be recreated on stage — nor by genre convention. That makes Passé Paranoia feel even bolder as a debut, and though its ultimate presentation is the band making what they do sound and look easy, like something they just belted out in an afternoon (granted they did build their own studio and record themselves), the results yield a much richer and more resonant first impression.
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Tags: California, King Volume Records, Lord Loud, Lord Loud Passé Paranoia, Passé Paranoia, Van Nuys
