Lucius’s debut LP Wildewoman is a neon collision of raucous flowery pop and emotionally raw folk music. The quintet makes marvelous use of their two lead singers, blending and weaving their voices together and giving them a starring role in the album. Here’s the album, track by track.
Wildewoman: a catchy joyous portrait of an independent woman who is “only bound by the things she chooses”.
Turn It Around: an equally energetic if less positive song about another woman, who can’t be bothered by her mistakes, is looking through the “wrong end of the telescope” and therefore can’t see what’s in front of her.
Go Home: the slow tempo is a bit jarring in comparison to the previous songs but it is nevertheless is a lovely, raw, barebones melody and a poignant scream of a chorus “I don’t need you anyway!”
Hey, Doreen: eminently danceable song that seems to be about hiding an affair [“cover your tracks, you know you can’t take it back”].
Tempest: slightly mellower than ‘Doreen’ but still pretty. (video below)
Nothing Ordinary: boisterous and rather catchy, its simple chorus sung with such distortion that the words take some careful listening to puzzle out.
The Two Of Us On The Run: a marked contrast to its predecessor, sweetly slow and nearly acoustic, bringing out the folksy parts of Lucius’ sound.
Until We Get There: continues the folksy trend, its gorgeously muted yet soaring chorus, that despite being entirely made up of nonsense words is something one could easily close one’s eyes and “Ooh hoo hoo” along with.
Don’t Just Sit There: ramps up a bit tempo-wise and is fun, if a bit simplistic in the lyrics department.
Monsters: a low-key creepy song, finds the dark in this brightly pop-y album, painting us a picture of the allegorical monsters under the bed we should have grown out of long ago, but still lurk in the backs of our minds [“I should be wiser, but all of these monsters/I let them get under my skin”].
How Loud Your Heart Gets: concludes the album with dynamic song that just begs to be sung along with dramatically and loudly, preferably while no one else is home.
Wildewoman is a lively, poignant, and overall entertaining debut. If you haven’t already heard it, it’s definitely worth listening to, possibly on repeat. If the album isn’t enough for you, Lucius with You Won’t will be playing at the Independent in San Francisco on Feb. 7th at 9 pm. Tube will see you there.
Photo Peter Larson