In the current time continuum, it may seem somewhat superficial to expect a band to actually have songs. You don’t really need songs as, with two clicks of your heels, you can fix it in the mix. Fortunately, Seattle band Lowlands have a rather more classical, and sometimes metaphorical, approach to filling up their album “The Whale”.
Some might therefore conclude that Lowlands are a band styled after the past. Some might even be right as Lowlands indeed have songs and more than sufficient musical skill to give those songs, and here comes another antiquated concept, an arrangement. Take one listen to “Captain” or “Bold Like Fire” and that will be enough to convince the better educated ears amongst you to get them on a tour bus so that their music gets to as many people as possible. Lowlands are, after all, a proper band.
Talking of their musical skills, those good old fashioned musical values mean that guitar solos are there in quantity but Lowlands easily transcend that indie rock barrier for a walk through the fertile fields of power pop. Choosing that direction is, as always, a matter of heart and soul and, like a sugar dipped Delaney and Bonnie, Lowlands justify it by enticing us towards those metaphysical good times with a song like “Hands And Feet”. It might be an old fashioned approach but a worthy one nonetheless.
“The Whale” is a strong album. Of that there is no doubt.
Available from Bandcamp.