Sometimes identifying an album\u2019s themes requires a dose of imagination (or something stronger), and sometimes they\u2019re as obvious as a four-by-four to the forehead. No music writers were harmed in the preparation of this review, but I can confidently report that Lost In A Sound<\/i> is, for the most part, an exploration of two contrasting environments: the ocean and the desert. Most of its tracks illustrate\u2014sometimes abstractly, sometimes concretely, sometimes vividly\u2014the characteristics and atmosphere of these two very different settings.<\/p>\n
Lost In A Sound<\/i> is also the fourth full album celebrating the songwriting and arranging partnership of singer-multi-instrumentalist Ian M. Bailey and Daniel Wylie (Cosmic Rough Riders), both highly observant worshippers of The Byrds, and in particular Gene Clark and Gram Parsons. Bailey\u2019s work on vocals, guitar, bass, drums and keys is once again aided and abetted by multi-instrumentalist\/string arranger\/mastering engineer Alan Gregson.<\/p>\n
Bailey and company open with antiwar anthem \u201cRooks\u201d charging into view, featuring multiple densely layered guitars and airy, psychedelic-tinged vocals. It\u2019s one of two tracks here that fall outside of the ocean\/desert dichotomy (though it might have with a few tweaks); the other is \u201cNew Years Eve 2010,\u201d a bright and mournful breakup song whose lyric feels a tad on the nose.<\/p>\n
In between the two we find a trio of ocean-themed numbers. \u201cI\u2019ll Be There To Save You\u201d opens with the sound of a foghorn, a strummy, mid-tempo, rather cinematic number about showing up for the people you love that adds touches of piano and electric guitar as it builds. \u201cWhite Whale\u201d then delivers a simple, gentle, rather dreamy celebration of the beluga, whose swelling strings midway through feel like a score for footage of whales in the wild. Finally, \u201cDeep Blue Water\u201d is a lush, spare, mostly instrumental and rather hypnotic meditation. <\/p>\n
The second, \u201cdesert\u201d half of the album opens with evocative instrumental \u201cDesert High,\u201d its dense arrangement and vibe reminiscent of \u201cEight Miles High.\u201d Standout track \u201cWelcome To The Desert\u201d arrives with bigger guitars yet, a robust jangle fresh out of 1967 contrasted with echoey vocals, a number full of drive, mystery and evocative descriptions of arid landscapes.<\/p>\n
Next up, the deliberate, \u201cblurry,\u201d atmospheric verses of \u201cNever Read The Signs\u201d lead to string-laden, uplifting choruses about a European experiencing the California desert as an alien landscape. Then \u201cDon\u2019t Let The Garden Die\u201d offers a light, rather Harrisonesque hippie interlude before we return to that alien landscape. Closer \u201cThe Desert Could Be Mars\u201d is a study in contrasts, a slow, mournful acoustic number that leads to a dreamy bridge with big electric notes and swelling strings. This atmospheric and rather progressive track finishes up with an evocative coda, first gentle and acoustic, then\u2014well, you\u2019ll see. <\/p>\n
Lost In A Sound <\/i>dials up the psychedelic edge that has always been a part of Ian M. Bailey\u2019s classic \u201960s sound; it\u2019s an album full of stirring moments rendered in evocative brushstrokes of sound that linger in the imagination. Enjoy the trip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":35221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10930],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-47105","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ian-m-bailey","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47105"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}