Free download: sydlane.bandcamp.com/album/solstice

Syd Lane has done it again. While some songwriters furiously vomit up hours of garbage in the hope that something, anything redeemable might happen, and others sit chewing on their guitar strings waiting for inspiration, she has been quietly amassing an increasingly awesome body of songs, honing and refining them until, like golden apples they are ready to drop from the tree.

‘Solstice’ is the second apple of a whirlwind year but three months old. Already we have seen the utterly compelling ‘Hypatia’ make all the right ripples in the deep end of the pond. Everyone I know who has heard that album says it is mesmerising, and if you missed it then please check out what the Godfathers of bedroom-indie-pop The Streetlamp Doesn’t Cast Her Shadow Anymore said about it here: thestreetlampdoesntcast.blogspot.com/2011/03/griff-says-hypatia-beautiful-brilliant.html To be brutally honest I’ve barely had a chance to digest it myself – three or four listens on the run, safe in the knowledge that together with Jason Raspa on mastering duties, she’s produced another impeccable shimmering poetic work of art, undoubtedly more polished than its equally lovable predecessors like the epic ‘It Begins In Beauty’.

The ‘Hypatia’ mastering process and Jason’s well-trained ear for detail meant that while it was still being cut and spliced, polished and diced on the other side of the Atlantic, Syd could return to and forge on with a record we first glimpsed as ‘The Solstice Sessions’ back in January 2010. With the creative hard work done, it seems that ‘Solstice’ was ready for consumption fairly quickly, and here we are, only a few weeks later with a second Syd Lane to digest. My gut feeling when I heard it was available for free dowload was that my brain just wasn’t ready for more. Songs like these should be treasured, and experience tells me that with Syd records being crammed so full of wonderful melodies and soaring vocals, it is really easy to miss songs that you can later fall hopelessly in love with (eg. ‘Astride a Grave’, and ‘Not A Poet Be’).

But here I am, listening to ‘Solstice’ on the run. I just couldn’t help myself. And yes, it is indeed another masterpiece. Frighteningly so, for everyone but Syd who no doubt is quietly building more songs from daydreams, somewhere out there. My first impressions on individual tracks are invariably wrong, but from this one I dig ‘I Couldn’t Tell Her’, ‘Simple Pleasure For The Complex’, ‘The Moon and The Liar’, ‘Their World of Fear’, ‘My Reach Exceeds My Grasp’ and… really, who am I kidding? I love this whole record from start to finish. There are no weak links in the daisy chain, the voice soars crisp and clear as it always does, the harmonies if anything are even bigger, the BJM-esque guitar carries us on waves while the piano rings out its mini concertos, and it is familiarly Syd-like… because you sense that she is slowly and surely carving out a sound that with every record is becoming more and more her own. Budge up Mr Barrett, someday someone will describe a song as ‘Syd-like’ and not mean you.

There are only so many superlatives you can throw at some artists, before they become meaningless. Awesome, it is. Brilliant, it is. Emotionally charged, yip. Catchy, yes. Epic, most definitely. Unintentionally cool, it is always that too. For those of you who are being sucked dry by life, I hope you find some space to catch ‘Solstice’ on the run like I did, and for those of you who have all the space that you need then I hope you can set some aside for both ‘Solstice’ and ‘Hypatia’… and ‘It Begins In Beauty’… and all The Loaded Whisper’s albums. The trajectory is upwards and it sounds (insert flurry of superlatives), so catch it while you can.

Well done Syd and thank you for doing what you do.

CATEGORIES:RELEASES, REVIEWS, SYD LANE