Album Review: LUMP – LUMP


LUMP




Some combinations sound as unusual in real life as they do on paper.

The only difference is some are meant to. Welcome to Laura Marling and Mike Lindsay’s LUMP. The self-titled record is one of unmitigated experimentalism and unrelenting beauty but it’s also, beneath the layers of fascinating production and lyricism, a very simple record. Emotional, warm and potent.

Late To The Flight opens the record in a beautiful, enchanting and disorientating style. Marling’s gentle folkiness is paired with twisting and eviscerating production full of wonderfully delicate peculiarities, there’s a feeling of Sandy Denny pulling a Trout Mask Replica cover out of some strange corner of her folky soul.

May I Be The Light then turns a very different corner. It’s unusual, it’s schizophrenic, but mostly it’s compelling. This blending of two seemingly incongruous parts to form a genuinely fascinating whole is brilliant. There’s a wonderful dichotomy between the timidness and the power of Marling’s two distinct vocal sections that truly grips.

Rolling Thunder is, to start with, equally unsettling and uncomfortable, but as it builds it becomes more song-like, more soulful, more enchanting. There’s even a hint of Portishead to it. This is LUMP’s outstanding moment, finishing hard after a powerful slow build.

The single Curse Of The Contemporary has a noticeable country twang to it, a simpler, more familiar style and structure almost make it seem unusual amongst the more complex and fascinating ideas to be found. What keeps the song interesting is that they’ve even managed to subvert the expected in very unexpected ways. So what starts as one thing never remains that way. What you’re left with is 16 Horsepower meets Joni Mitchell with wonky 80’s Vangelis style production sheen.

Hand Hold Hero is lyrical, descriptive, pulsating and driven by a wonderful narrative. It’s a fascinating change in direction. What’s more exciting is just how bold and aggressive it feels compared to the rest of the record. This is a lot more direct in its focus with its almost odd, Pink Floyd On The Run coda.

Shake Your Shelter is when the album’s initial disorientation and misdirection returns. It’s a very, very, very dark take on Goldfrapp’s disco pop. It’s also kind of fun, despite the intensity. LUMP Is A Product (Credits) is an incredibly unusual way to sign off; on paper, adding spoken credits might not sound very interesting but in Marling and Lindsay’s hands you get something akin to the instrument listing on Tubular Bells as put through David Holmes’ Henry McCullough. They’ve simply removed BP Fallon’s romantic tale of a passionate friend and stuck with Vivian Stanshall’s literal translation of sleeve notes. It’s oddly compelling.

In fact, it would be easy to just list the entire record as oddly compelling, but that would be selling it very short. The production of every track is intricate and unexpected, Marling’s vocal never anything short of sublime. And the results deliver some genuinely breathtaking moments.



LUMP is a record of undefinable substance and beauty – that’s not something you find very often, but when you do you need to hold it close to your heart, and to your ears.

(Dylan Llewellyn-Nunes)


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