I’m not here to say dream pop can’t come from certain places, but when I think of where the genre is generated, my mind wanders to exotic, foreign locales — London, Reykjavik, Dublin. Music environmentally adapts from the areas it’s culled from – there’s a reason the blues come from Mississippi.
I’ve learned some sounds come from unexpected spots (Sunny Day in Glasgow is from Philadelphia, which I still don’t understand), so there are barriers my mind will leap. But accepting dream pop from Greensboro, N.C. is a bit too much to ask.
It’s not that Lake Isle‘s debut release Winter Lights doesn’t have its high points – several songs share a fine affinity with Pennsylvania popsters The Ocean Blue (this is always good). But Lake Isle writes dream pop like Outback makes steaks: it’s serviceable and sometimes good, but nothing you remember once consumption is over.
Nothing really stands out. Lead singer Mark Doughtery wades through each song at an unhurried pace, while guitar solos come and go in typical indie rock fashion. “Anodyne” starts off well enough, Andy Foster’s catchy drumbeat is met by Owen Burd’s quaint trumpet in the track’s first minute, but it doesn’t find added range in the song’s final four minutes. Hurd’s trumpet saves “Into the White” from falling into obscurity, his Burt Bacharach-type horn the only highlight in this colorless track. “Dangerous” is anything but, a five-minute anchor weighing down the album’s end.
Life is found within “Funhouse,” which channels the Ocean Blue’s melodic guitar and contains echoes of fellow Tar Heel’s The Connells. “Wake Up,” true to its title, is a delightfully bouncy tune, a jangled guitar mixes well with a chorus of voices and racing drum beat. Doughtery’s voice is invested and playful for the album’s best track.
I’ll say it — this was a difficult review to write. I gravitated to Winter Lights when I read Mitch Easter (the musical maestro who produced R.E.M.’s masterpiece Murmur) did the album’s final mix — anything good enough for Mitch is good enough for me. And while this was good, it wasn’t much else, much to my disappointment. That I will remember about Winter Lights.
