Lazarus
Songs For an Unborn Sun
Temporary Residence
Trevor Montgomery’s Lazarus plays music at the pace of history’s oldest man: slow, steady and constant. Songs For an Unborn Sun is a very minimal, lo-fi trip down distant, well-trod indie lanes. There’s not much new about the mish-mash of acoustic guitars and synths that lace through the album’s twelve tracks. Probably every music fan worth his/her geek status has written and recorded close approximations of at least a couple of these songs. Chances are, though, that “Tears” and the too short piano-based closer “Time” are better than your entire four-tracked catalog.
However, by the album’s mid-point the unbroken plodding tempo wears a little thin, as do Montgomery’s limited vocal melodies. Interestingly enough, he is given a vocal assist by what sounds like a troll who subsists on dried, autumn leaves it finds in the gutter. It’s not what I would call helpful.
In the end, Lazarus has made a decent album, part sleep inducingly good and part boringly mediocre. It’s appropriate music for silent places and quiet times. It moves just enough to let the listener know it’s there, but doesn’t go out of its way to make everyone pay attention.
Temporary Residence: http://www.temporaryresidence.com/
