n. Lannon
Chemical Friends
Badman Recording Co.
I’m wondering: has it ceased to be a post-modern feat for folk artists to dabble in electronics and vice versa? In current music landscape terms, I would think so. I’m sure there were performers who attempted it previously, but Badly Drawn Boy garnered quite a bit of attention when he first started marrying the two sounds over three years ago. Three years! That’s more than enough time for a pop genre to be born, die and have a renaissance. With this in mind, n. Lannon’s Chemical Friends doesn’t provide much of a shock; it doesn’t break any new ground, but it’s still a masterful and beguiling album.
More so than his contemporaries, n. Lannon lets the folk and the electro exist as two separate instrumental entities, leaving the songwriting and the subtle atmospheric threads to shoulder the burden of sound reconciliation. Lannon’s talent makes the transition between the Paul Simon-esque fingerpicked flurry of “Hollow Heart” and the clockwork synths-on-parade “My Last Breath” seem effortless. In the wake of The Postal Service’s popularity and Elliott Smith’s untimely passing, this is an album that should help usher in the re-awareness of quality soft-spoken indie rock. It’s about time.
Badman Recording Co.: http://www.badmanrecordingco.com
