Going by lyrics alone, you’d think Telekinesis\u2019 Michael Lerner is one sad dude. On the band\u2019s second album, he sings about heartbreak in 50 different ways (to take a nod from one of his songs), lamenting about salt in the wound and constantly lonely.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s even a song called \u201cI Cannot Love You.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, in a neat twist of comportment, Lerner surrounds these dour words with sun-soaked melodies and cheery sing-alongs. Getting your soul crushed by another never sounded happier: Lerner spends the better part of the 40-minute album getting you up while also bringing you down.<\/p>\n
The album\u2019s best song, the Cure-tinged \u201cPlease Ask for Help,\u201d pushes along at clipped speed (all but two of the songs check in under three minutes), with Lerner racing to keep up with the music before needing a second to take a breath. Singing about pain is tiring. Other highlights include the lo-fi \u201cCar Crash\u201d and the loud-quiet-loud dynamics of \u201cFever Chill,\u201d both solid efforts.<\/p>\n
But what you discover after listening to Straight Lines is how forgettable it all is. It’s fun to go back and relive, but unlike the pain Lerner suffered to spur the writing of these songs, his work doesn\u2019t stay with you. This isn’t all bad. Like ruined relationships, the aim is to learn something and move on, and Lerner has taken a positive step here.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s hoping his next offering will be lasting, which \u2014 like true love \u2014 is what we\u201dre all looking for in the end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Going by lyrics alone, you’d think Telekinesis\u2019 Michael Lerner is one sad dude. On the band\u2019s second album, he sings about heartbreak in 50 different ways (to take a nod from one of his songs), lamenting about salt in the wound and constantly lonely. There\u2019s even a song called \u201cI Cannot Love You.\u201d But, in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1470,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[465,464],"class_list":["post-1469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-12-desperate-straight-lines","tag-telekinesis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469","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=1469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1471,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469\/revisions\/1471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}