Tyneside’s Lanterns on the Lake release their much-anticipated album, Versions of Us. This self-produced fifth studio album follows 2020’s Mercury nominated Spook the Herd. Its nine songs are existential meditations examining life’s possibilities, facing the hand we’ve been dealt and the question of whether we can change our individual and collective destinies. Whatever serves the song goes on the song,” states Gregory. “Personally, with Spook T he Herd, I think we got it right in that all the bits that go on the song are to serve the vocal melodies and the lyrical ideas behind it. It’s about choosing the instrument carefully and not piling stuff on for the sake of piling stuff on.” Upcoming Events". O2 Academy Brixton. Archived from the original on 6 January 2012 . Retrieved 1 February 2016. Opener and lead single “The Likes of Us” documents the state of things (“Oblivion howls for these gutted streets / Boarded shops cower in defeat”) but sublimates observations into a mantra of resolve (“I won’t let this spark die in me”). It heralds Versions of Us as the band’s most cohesive and concise record yet, with its pervading sense of empowerment encapsulated in Wilde’s startling vocal performances. Her voice soars with previously unheard force on an album austere in its beauty, with its shifting sands of searing guitar, fluttering vintage synths and swarming melodic lines, topped with glistening strings from Angela Chan.

Put another way, you don’t scrap an entire budget’s worth of recorded material and start over unless you really believe in your material’s potential. To Lanterns on the Lake’s credit, the version they’ve release into the world is phenomenal, intricate, and utterly immersive. This sense of hope permeates Versions O f Us more than any other Lanterns record. On The Likes O f Us, Wilde steels her resolve despite the state of things, her glorious vocals soaring over Angela Chan’s glittering strings and Bob Allan’s delicate bass line, ending with the determined repetition of the mantra-like “ I won’t let this spark die in me” . It displays the cavernous sound we’ve come to expect from Lanterns, yet Versions O f Us is more austere in its instrumentation than previous offerings. Versions Of Us is a majestic career peak record from a band that has evolved constantly over more than a decade. It’s their fifth and most focused sounding album despite the difficulties in making it. The production belies being done in a bedroom, at points the instrumentation sounds widescreen and big budget without losing sight of where it’s come from. Lyrically, it’s raw, honest and painfully open at parts, a catharsis being used to make sense of what’s gone on and how to recover from it.As Wilde sings in the last line that very first song: “ I won’t let this spark die in me.” Versions of Us – Lanterns on the Lake In all of those infinite versions of us Singer and songwriter Hazel Wilde has no doubt that motherhood fundamentally shifted her perspective. “Writing songs requires a certain level of self-indulgence, and songwriters can be prone to dwelling on themselves,” she says. “Motherhood made me aware at having a different stake in the world. I’ve got to believe that there’s a better way and an alternative future to the one we’ve been hurtling towards. I’ve also got to believe that I could be better as a person, too.”
Mixed by the band’s guitarist Paul Gregory, in the bedroom of his home in North Shields, there is a sense of time and place that runs deep throughout this record. Lanterns on the Lake have announced that their new album, Versions of Us , will be out June 2nd via Bella Union. Featuring Radiohead’s Philip Selway on drums and percussion, it’s the band’s fifth studio album, and their first since the departure of their former drummer, Ol Ketteringham. Alongside the announcement, the group unveiled the album’s lead single, “The Likes of Us.” We’d blown our budget and passed our deadline, but in a way, it was almost liberating,” says Wilde. “We had absolutely nothing to lose and we still believed in the songs. We had such a short period of time to remake an entire album, but that gave an energy to the songs that made the album what it is; it feels way more alive and more immediate with all that bubbling emotion underneath.” Lanterns On The Lake November Tour | News | Clash Magazine". Clashmusic.com. 21 October 2015 . Retrieved 1 February 2016.

Review | Lanterns On The Lake ~ Until The Colours Run". GoldFlakePaint.co.uk. 23 September 2013 . Retrieved 1 February 2016. It was during this break that Wilde began writing many of the songs that would go on to make up Spook the Herd. The band developed the songs over the course of a year before recording at Distant City studios in Yorkshire. This was the first time the group had gone into a studio to record. Wilde has commented that "We are a pretty insular band in how we work, and trusting other people enough to allow them to get involved is not always easy for us."The album was produced by the band and mixed by the band's guitarist Paul Gregory. [24] Thumb Of War hints at conspiracy theories and falling out with friends –“I see you scrolling through the century, banging on about some warning”– and trying to convince them of their madness. The music lays out the drama, strings and guitars creating a lush tension than runs through before building to a swirling crescendo. Edwards, David (15 September 2011). "Album Review: Lanterns on the Lake – Gracious Tide, Take Me Home / Releases / Releases // Drowned In Sound". Drownedinsound.com. Archived from the original on 26 September 2011 . Retrieved 1 February 2016. BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m001rcl0/uncanny. {{ cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= ( help)The Likes Of Us In a time where the future can feel uncertain and there’s a lot of negativity and chaos, this song is about believing in other possibilities and it’s about not letting other people steal that sense of hope from you. Lanterns On The Lake have announced news of an extensive UK tour in late 2023 to support the release including a set at Bearded Theory festival in Derbyshire in late May: With their fourth record, Spook T he Herd, Lanterns O n The Lake found themselves nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize. Now here they were just a short time later, wondering whether they were even going to make another album.

It’s hard to explain fully what went on there. There were points where some of us considered whether we could and should continue at all with making the record and pursuing a life in music. We made this huge decision to scrap the whole thing and start again. We’d already blown our small budget and the deadline to submit the album was just a couple of months away.”

Lanterns On The Lake have announced news of an extensive UK tour in late 2023 to support the release. The band will also be performing at the Bearded Theory festival in Derbyshire in late May: Vatican This is about someone always being there for me, even at my most unlovable. String Theory This is a song about reflecting on what might have been and might, in some way, still be. It finds beauty and solace in the multiverse theory and the idea that out there somewhere, vibrating on their own frequency, exists another fully realised version of yourself where your story turned out differently.

a b O'Brien, Jon. Album review – Lanterns on the Lake: Gracious Tide, Take Me Home at AllMusic. Retrieved 17 April 2012. Lanterns on the Lake Plotting First North American Tour; Second Album Entitled, Until The Colours Run – Music Snobbery". 7 April 2014. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014 . Retrieved 12 April 2020. But things took a dramatic turn and there was a huge shift in our mindset and approach to the whole thing once Philip joined to play drums on the album. We were able to approach the songs with a fresh perspective. We recorded the album again within the space of just a few weeks. It was a case of, ‘ Ok, we’ve nothing left to lose now, this is it.’ To me, it almost felt like this could be our final mark to make on the world. Things were recorded in a few takes, and we would move on. The music and the performances have a charged energy to them that we wouldn’t otherwise have had because of that.” Mixed by the band’s guitarist Paul Gregory, in the bedroom of his home in North Shields, there is a sense of time and place that runs deep throughout this record. They self-released two EPs and a single before signing to the Bella Union record label in December 2010. [2]

Despite these moments, Versions of Us is by no means Lanterns on the Lake’s jump into unbridled commercialism. One of their more difficult traits has always been a tendency to meander, and that is an issue with some of the songs here. The lead single, “The Likes of Us”, has all the ingredients – martial drums, a big chorus, dynamics – but somehow fails to make a huge impact. Notably, the band’s drum vacancy has been filled by Radiohead‘s Philip Selway, a Bella Union labelmate. His presence certainly lends prestige, but he’s never been a thumper in terms of playing style, and he sometimes gets buried in the instrumentation around him. Over the last 12 years or so, Lanterns on the Lake have forged and honed a singular sound and gradually found a niche in the indie pop landscape. Versions of Us is their fifth album, and it doesn’t sound all that different from the others: a rich, atmospheric milieu marked by dramatic chords, clattering drums, and blasts of distorted guitar tempered with shoegaze-inspired washes, Hazel Wilde’s vulnerable vocals, and cozy, folky sensibilities informed by the band’s Northern English heritage. They are signed to the Bella Union record label, which former Cocteau Twins member Simon Raymonde runs, and it would not be easy to imagine a more perfect fit. On 13 November 2015 the group released their third album Beings worldwide. [16] Beingswas met with critical acclaim [17] with Drowned in Sound declaring Lanterns on the Lake as "One of Britain's most crucial bands of the present moment." [18] and DIY Magazine describing the group as "virtually without equal". [19] Live with Royal Northern Sinfonia (2016) [ edit ] Album Review: Lanterns on the Lake – Beings". Drownedinsound.com. Archived from the original on 28 November 2015 . Retrieved 12 April 2020.