So, after all that, I'm talking here about the Lonely Forest. So far the most popular group I've written about - not saying much, but they are the only one with a Wikipedia page - I first heard of them through total coincidence. While standing outside an underwhelming show at the Vera Project in Seattle, getting ready to ditch out on the show with a few friends, a very excited guy came out of the door and introduced himself as John Van Deusen, and urged us to stay until the last band, because it was his. He then left to get cookies. The show started with a room full of bored, stock still hipsters but ended with nearly everyone on the floor dancing. I went out and bought their concept album Nuclear Winter the next day.
Recently, the Lonely Forest released We Sing the Body Electric, their newest LP. Based on a couple concerts and a lot of listening on podcasts and the internet, it is a pretty fantastic follow-up. Whereas Nuclear Winter chronicled a single story of a family escaping a world war, WSBE is a more traditional album with a few stand-outs: the title track and Turn Off The Song And Go Outside among them.
I love this band not because of their musical style, but because of the sincerity of Van Deusen's vocals. The music is great, don't get me wrong, but the melodic, minimalist refrain of Two Pink Pills ("I hear a voice, so faint and weak, two pink pills to fall asleep") - so unlike the rest of their catalog - and the heavy lyrics of Turn Off The Song ("I've seen the tweakers struggle, syringes line the floor") tell the story of the songwriter's struggle with and overcome addiction in between albums.
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