THIS IS NOT A DRILL
Three albums in, Newcastle’s Lanterns On The Lake were burnt out and needed a break. They return refreshed, leaner and not afraid to speak from the heart on their strongest record yet. Gary Walker hears why they’ve never been happier
Rising waters, unhinged autocrats, fake news and in the final reckoning, a future civilisation carbon dating the whole sorry mess we’ve left behind. Lanterns On The Lake’s fourth album finds humanity at the precipice. Yet despite all the existential terror spilling from chief songwriter Hazel Wilde’s pen, Spook The Herd’s central question is “do I have hope?”. You bet she does.
While a concern for humanity has always coruscated through Lanterns’ dreamy post-rock vignettes, on Spook The Herd it’s overt, Wilde’s writing more direct than at any time since they formed in 2007 from the ashes of previous band Greenspace.
It was Bella Union’s Simon Raymonde who discovered the band, his waning faith in British music restored by an early single he heard guesting on Steve Lamacq’s Roundtable radio show. Their 2011 debut album, Gracious Tide Take Me Home, showed promise. Two years and a line-up change later, Until The Colours Run was a huge leap forward. Its nine examinations of the minutiae of real life in England’s neglected towns swell with cinematic majesty and the influence of both one-time touring partners Explosions In The Sky and Raymonde’s Cocteau Twins.
“There’s always that hope,” Wilde tells us, sitting alongside guitarist and long-time partner Paul Gregory, cradling cups of tea. With Lanterns On The Lake, there’s always tea, too. “I think a lot of people, myself included, are guilty of being pessimistic, but deep down I think people hope things are going to change.
“We’ve never consciously made an effort to write about any particular subject and this album is more personal than anything, but huge world events affect you and that comes out through the songs. It’s looking at the world through a personal lens.”