Scott BresslerLydia
Illuminate
Rating: 2.5/5
Tracks to download: “It’s Time Now,” “December,” “Now the One You Once Loved is Leaving”
For fans of: Mae, Straylight Run
I have hometown envy. I wish I were from New York City and not New Jersey; I wish I were from Council Bluffs; I would even settle for Omaha.
Recently I’ve wished I were from anywhere near Phoenix.
Suddenly it seems all the bands worth anything are from that Arizona city. What’s going on?
I realize you get famous and you drag along that one band you liked from your scene and then it just snowballs, but seriously, kids: Scary Kids Scaring Kids, Blessthefall and the Format. Bands from Arizona have their own wiki, so I know I’m not making it up.
The bizarre thing is they don’t necessarily go together genre-wise. Lydia, the newest installment of Arizona-based rock, with its girl-boy singing duo, was set to open for Saves the Day at the Pageant. The show has since been canceled.
Lucky for me, my policy of ‘the opener for a band I like may be my next favorite band’ in conjunction with the Internet’s ability to give me a lot of music from a band I’ve never heard of has acquainted me with Lydia.
Lydia would have been a fantastic opener. Front man Leighton Antelman and keyboardist Mindy White trade off on singing, winding through songs together in a way which either takes an insane amount of practice or comes so naturally it would be a crime for them not to sing together.
Other than that, Lydia was rather bland as far as pop-punk, based on my initial listens through their 2005 album, “This December; It’s One More and I’m Free.” (This is a call to English majors: What kind of title is that? What does it mean?) It was heavily based on the lyrics and voices, which weren’t bad, but after 50 minutes I wanted more instrumentation.
I firmly believe if a group has more than three members, it never has an excuse for an album which doesn’t boast at least four truly interesting instrumentation parts-unless you’re Bjork and are only using human voices for the entire album.
I don’t mind a rockin’ bass line in one song and a catchy guitar riff in another, but I need something. Lydia has six members. Granted, Leighton doesn’t play anything and only sings, but they still have two guitars, bass, drums and keys.
Then I stumbled upon “Illuminate,” the March 18 release.
It seems like in the 2.5 years between album releases, someone pulled them aside and straightened them out, maybe illuminated the desires of many kids who listen to way too much pop-punk. The problem is that the same kids listening to pop-punk are listening to screamo, and regardless of your opinion of the singing style, it is heavy on complicated instrumentation.
“This is Twice Now” opens with a slow piano line which is hauntingly repeated throughout the song. Unlike the previous album, however, it doesn’t stop there. The drums and guitar line take up the slack from the last album and make the song a gem.
“Now the One You Once Loved is Leaving” is sung back and forth between Mindy and Leighton, making the song of heartbreak and lost love hit home. “Take your time lighting the room/ when all is said and done/ I bet you’re covering.” The music ebbs and flows between the chorus and verses, making the heartfelt sadness feel more real.
Another thing that struck me is they have no music videos. Not in a ‘you don’t know the guy who made it’ way, but more in a ‘they haven’t bothered making one for any song’ way.
Supposedly, they are so focused on the album as a whole that they didn’t even want to select a song or two to be a single since it would take away from the album as a whole. I’m not sure if this is horribly pretentious or just being into your music. Based on the fact that I didn’t read this on Pitchfork I’m going to go with the latter.
So will you see Lydia again? My guess is yes. Not only have they previously played Warped Tour and Bamboozle, but they have the whole girl singing thing going for them and they have keyboards, both of which are huge right now in the pop-punk scene. So check them out on their MySpace and this summer at your favorite festival.