Lorna
Static Patterns and Souvenirs
Words On Music
Lorna’s second full length, Static Patterns and Souvenirs, is an exercise in gorgeous cinematic music. It plays like the soundtrack to a drive on a weakly illuminated summer night; it’s quiet, with the occasional emphatic swell in volume, like wind rushing through an open car window. The root of the band’s sound fits nicely into the pocket formed by groups like Mazzy Star, Low and Mojave 3. Where those bands have either broken up or started the arduous task of radically changing their sound, Lorna is content to expand from their previous work. Nearly half of the songs on this album exceed the five minute mark, which allows the band to casually stretch out in all directions. While there might be a predetermined destination for these ambling tracks, Lorna takes the scenic route in getting there, letting the listener explore the peaks and crags of their lush and austere soundscape. The entire disc is full of quality material, but there are a handful of potential mixtape anchors: “Remarkable Things,” which pulls off the melancholy grandeur that Mazzy Star never quite managed; the dusty, bumpy roads of “The Last Mosquito Fight of Summer”; the skipping Scottish pop mope, “He Dreams of Spaceships”; and the exploration of epic simplicity and darkness, “Illuminations.” Throw one of these in your next mix, and your friends will thank you all summer long.
Words on Music: http://www.words-on-music.com
