Going under the moniker of Lightspeed Champion, Dev has unplugged his electric guitar, sold it on ebay and bought a nice new shiny acoustic guitar with the money. Those facts may well be false. What I’m trying to say is that this new album is as far removed from Test Icicles as a dead baby is from the fresh fish section at Morrisons.
On production duties for this record was Mike Mogis, who also plays guitar with Bright Eyes. The album very much has a Bright Eyes feel to it, with an almost identical sound to his 2005 album ‘I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning.’ Dev does however, have an infinitely less annoying voice than Conor Oberst.
If I were to use the adjective ‘odd’ to describe the lyrics to album opener ‘Galaxy of the Lost’ then it certainly wouldn’t be an understatement. ‘As we kiss and I’m sick in your mouth’ doesn’t really leave a lot to the imagination. The albums theme of acoustic guitars, slide guitars, string quartets, Hammond organs and fantastic backing vocals from Emmy The Great come to a head in Lightspeed Champions very own Paranoid Android, ‘Midnight Surprise’. I tried to separate the wonderfully arranged piece into segments but I couldn’t. Basically, it clocks in at nearly 10 minutes and really is a showcase for the whole album, with beautiful acoustic guitar work from Dev, along with great strings, drums, piano and backing vocals. (Emmy the Great = great, especially on ‘Dry Lips’) ‘Tricks for A Bitch’is a very interesting piece of song writing; with just Dev singing with a string quartet for backing it tackles issues of racism that are apparently still prevalent in the predominantly white indie scene.
Overall, this album is incredibly strong and the level of songwriting on show is top notch. Evidently Dev Hynes is more than a one-trick pony, and this album is capable of sitting with the best of them.
Rating: 9/10
Author: James Pole
