Written by Tom Bedding
The band have offered a variety of ideas and sounds, filled with engaging synths and dramatic melodies. Lyon Tide have really offered something that will impressively captivate listeners.
The subtle but effective opener, ‘Closure’, starts off the bands debut record in impressive and dramatic fashion. The vocals stays in this restraint but personable tone, while the instrumentation going from a stripped back mould, to the chorus including some dramatic strings and arena worthy guitars. Lyon Tide offers us one of their strongest cuts to date straight away, which shows off their impressive intentions and ability to craft a dramatic indie rock song.
Lyon Tide’’s ambiance is still felt on ‘Hero’, yet it is put through a different lens, indicating that this band aren’t just a one trick pony. The song has a really cool groove to its synths and bass, showcasing how the group can easily shift sonically and able to give the listener a nice variety of sounds and styles. Despite the mellow tempo to ‘Hero’, the drumming is a certain key aspect to this song, ensuring it has a good standard to it.
Then, 80’s indie songwriting shines on the blissful, ‘Believe Me Im A Liar’. Again the drumming standouts and the vocal melody on display, has the potential to captive anyone, it really feels jolly and fresh. Production wise we hear some 80’s synth nods deep within the mix; despite wishing there was another layer to the synths to give this song a great dynamic shift later on, the overall execution is rather impressive.
This band are indeed bold with wanting to shift their songwriting to different sounds throughout ‘Beginnings of Ends’, it may cause the record not to flow smoothly but it still feels impressive with its consistency in quality . Throughout ‘Welcome To The Other Side’, we have this slight industrial tone (up against some new wave like ones) and it really gives the track some much needed grit to it.
Some lovely acoustic guitars appear (emerge even) on the King Gizzard meets Crosby, Stills and Nash track, ‘Butterfly’. Backed up by a nice sounding piano part, Lyon Tide take a stroll through nature on this pleasant sounding acoustic number. Next though, we have the better acoustic based track, ‘Gold’, due to it having this impressive melody and drumming production that makes it feel like it is seeping through magically.
‘Blind’ stands out by a considerable amount and possibly is the track to listen to, off this impressive debut album. ‘Blind’ has an incredible force with its synth sounds, impressive melody and assured vocals, leaving you mesmerised constantly. The tones of the guitars match the synths so well, elevating a song that is declaring how a previous lover means everything to them, even to the point that they feel like they are not home anymore.
If you had to guess the tones we hear on the song ‘Science’, you are probably right and that is a thumbs up to the glitchy sounding synths, that run throughout the song. Unfortunately the song gets a tad lost with the mixing but the guitars really act as a bright light on the song, they are sounding so rich and edgy constantly.
As ‘Beginnings of Ends’, begins its last moments, we are given a piano meets synth ballad called ‘Fight’. It is very dramatic with its melody and mixing of the drums, which whirl around so softly, keeping you so engaged throughout. It has to be said again, Lyon Tide are impressive with how they shift around a musical landscape to keep their intentions varied and this song does this to a really impressive manner!
‘Someone’ finishes Lyon Tide’s impressive new release, it starts with a dramatic guitar line and classic sounding vocals, which is defiantly the centre piece of the record. The band come together well with some cool guitars and keyboard parts that really keeps the basis of the song so pure sounding, it is a really fitting closing song. To conclude, Lyon Tide shine on this debut LP and offer us elements that are going to play a key part in their musical journey.
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