One of the great musical cities in the world, New York is famous for the bands it has spawned over the decades, many of who can lay claim to shaping modern pop culture.
Against such a backdrop of creativity and innovation, it must surely be easy to harness the vibrancy, energy and diversity of the city into music, yet the fact that the method is tried and tested equally inspires artists to think differently.
Lightning Bug have always operated on the fringes of the city’s scene, with several false starts. Despite having never played a gig before their debut album was released nearly seven years ago, said album was a mini-hit, with a spot on the NME’s ‘Best Debut Albums Of The Year’ list in 2015.
After a period of personal discovery for primary songwriter and singer Audrey Kang, second album October Song debuted in 2019. As on the first two, A Color Of The Sky (named, rather wonderfully, after a kite festival) is a dexterous, at points whimsical album which well reflects a recording location (Catskills, a mountain range in upstate New York) which feels at one with nature. No Converse or leather jackets to be found here.
Setting the mood, opener The Return starts slowly as the band ease their way into the song with downcast but progressive sounds and a woozily hypnotic melody. Taking its time over its six-minute duration, it’s more about atmospherics than anything else.
It also introduces the album’s theme of growth and development (‘The times I should’ve let go, but instead I blindly fought’). Similarly, ‘September Song, pt. ii’ (a sequel to September Song from their previous album, funnily enough) reminds the listener that change is so often the constant in life (‘I am raw/I am new in the transition’), and that it’s best to embrace it, the bubbling synths and acoustic guitar harnessing the effect of desperate nostalgia.
While the vibe and appearance of Lightning Bug may imply that A Color Of The Sky is a form of melancholic heaven/hell (depending on your point of view), the rest of the band get plenty of opportunities to show their teeth.
While folk is on the menu, in a couple of instances they do their best to (successfully) harken back to the early 1990s in the form of shoegaze: The Right Thing Is Hard To Do is so light it floats on the breeze, yet held to earth by stoic and uncomplicated drumming before becoming an ever-so-slightly, rippling form of the genre, cinematically opening the skies.
Meanwhile, I Lie Awake starts off as dream-pop but evolves with gritty guitar which swallows the vocals and band. Impressive work regardless, but the song also has the ‘indiest’ melody on the album. A standout.
Wings Of Desire also takes its time with a beautifully sad opening refrain, like being immersed in an isolation tank. Once again it builds with layers of ethereal sounds, but is tranquillity set to music in a way that’s much spoken about but rarely achieved.
The gentle stomp of Song Of The Bell is laced in distortion and reverb which adds an otherwise missing intensity to the band’s oeuvre, while the title-track – somewhat surprisingly given the effort that’s apparent elsewhere – is a soft, finger-plucked acoustic number that moves the soul if not the body.
Almost aggressively calming at points, but with enough tricks up its sleeve to keep the listener entranced, A Color Of The Sky is a rewarding listen which demands further investigation.
Now signed to a label (Fat Possum) who will surely encourage them to keep doing what they are doing, Lightning Bug are standing apart from the pack with increasing success.