Lightning Dust's excellent 2013 album
Fantasy marked a shift for the Vancouver duo, moving from the subdued folky tones of their earliest work to embrace dark, synthy pop. The band began as a side project of founding
Black Mountain members
Amber Webber and
Joshua Wells, foiling their main band's brawny guitar rock with moodier material. Fourth album
Spectre comes after a six-year interim where
Webber and
Wells parted ways with
Black Mountain to focus on
Lightning Dust full time. Still leaning heavily on vintage synth sounds and brooding moods, the band lets go of the pop formula that informed
Fantasy for a more multi-dimensional approach to the album's songcraft.
Webber's stunning vocals are even more central to these songs than before, reminiscent at various moments of the stark power of
Portishead's
Beth Gibbons, the whispery intrigue of
Bat for Lashes'
Natasha Khan, and
Stevie Nicks' haunting elegance. Album opener "Devoted To" is a perfect storm of the band's powers. It moves from a spooky intro of synths into a tense but dynamic groove. One part horror movie soundtrack, one part existential crisis, the song pairs dour acoustic guitars and some of
Webber's witchiest vocals for an album highlight. Much of the album falls in line with this chilly, autumnal mood, songs like "Joanna," and "Run Away" blending electronic and organic instruments as a backdrop for
Webber's plaintive, reaching self-harmonizing. Even when
Spectre strips down the instrumentation to just piano and vocals, as with the floating "More" and "Inglorious Flu," the ominous atmosphere of the record is still thick.
Lightning Dust albums always explore various styles, and the back half of
Spectre includes the explosive psychedelic guitar chug of "Competitive Depression," the swaying
Cat Power-esque "A Pretty Picture," and sprawling, urgent album closer "3AM/100 Degrees." More dense, driven, and complexly rendered than anything else in the band's catalog,
Spectre expands on the strongest moments of
Lightning Dust's ever-shifting muse. The production, songwriting, and performances all reach new levels of curiosity and unpredictable moves, making it some of the band's most captivating work. ~ Fred Thomas
