<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not here to say dream pop can\u2019t come from certain places, but when I think of where the genre is generated, my mind wanders to exotic, foreign locales \u2014 London, Reykjavik, Dublin. Music environmentally adapts from the areas it\u2019s culled from \u2013 there\u2019s a reason the blues come from Mississippi.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve learned some sounds come from unexpected spots (Sunny Day in Glasgow is from Philadelphia, which I still don\u2019t understand), so there are barriers my mind will leap. But accepting dream pop from Greensboro, N.C. is a bit too much to ask.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not that Lake Isle\u2018s debut release Winter Lights doesn\u2019t have its high points \u2013 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\u2019s serviceable and sometimes good, but nothing you remember once consumption is over.<\/p>\n
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. \u201cAnodyne\u201d starts off well enough, Andy Foster\u2019s catchy drumbeat is met by Owen Burd\u2019s quaint trumpet in the track\u2019s first minute, but it doesn\u2019t find added range in the song\u2019s final four minutes. Hurd\u2019s trumpet saves \u201cInto the White\u201d from falling into obscurity, his Burt Bacharach-type horn the only highlight in this colorless track. \u201cDangerous\u201d is anything but, a five-minute anchor weighing down the album\u2019s end.<\/p>\n
Life is found within \u201cFunhouse,\u201d which channels the Ocean Blue\u2019s melodic guitar and contains echoes of fellow Tar Heel\u2019s The Connells. \u201cWake Up,\u201d true to its title, is a delightfully bouncy tune, a jangled guitar mixes well with a chorus of voices and racing drum beat. Doughtery\u2019s voice is invested and playful for the album\u2019s best track.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll say it \u2014 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.\u2019s masterpiece Murmur) did the album\u2019s final mix \u2014 anything good enough for Mitch is good enough for me. And while this was good, it wasn\u2019t much else, much to my disappointment. That I will remember about Winter Lights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m not here to say dream pop can\u2019t come from certain places, but when I think of where the genre is generated, my mind wanders to exotic, foreign locales \u2014 London, Reykjavik, Dublin. Music environmentally adapts from the areas it\u2019s culled from \u2013 there\u2019s a reason the blues come from Mississippi. I\u2019ve learned some sounds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[368,369],"class_list":["post-1304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-lake-isle","tag-winter-lights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1304"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1306,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304\/revisions\/1306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}