- Record Label: Domino
- Release Date: Feb 5, 2008
- Critic score
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Whatever the case may be, what's left is a record with some promise but too many flaws to be truly enjoyable.
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Alternative PressFalling Off The Lavender Bridge is a collection of alt-country songs that alternate between darkly funny and deathly serious, cleverly coy and crappily dull. [Mar 2008, p.140]
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Hynes' shift into elaborate, string-laden indie-folk is itself a profound gesture, but repetitive melodies and inscrutable melodrama undermine the mission.
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The thing is, Mogis’ ‘Americana’ treatment of Lavender Bridge’s core material all too often saturates each song, soaking though to the core of Hynes’ material and threatening to set in to rot.
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Falling's callow couplets and needless potty mouthing ('Devil Tricks for a Bitch,' 'All to S---') can't meet the expectations set by the lovely parade of kitchen-sink instrumentation.
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FilterHynes poppy solo debut is packed with romantic up and downs and love-induced nausea, making for easy listen of well-produced, structurally sound guitar/piano folk. [Winter 2008, p.94]
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A million miles from thrash and punk, the twelve tracks here are an unusual mix of indie rock and country, with top class musicianship adding lots of depth and colour.
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MojoDev Haynes' debut is a sinewy, surprising move for one steeped in metallic noise bridging semi-acoustic country rock and chamber folk with a folk-prog detour on the 10-minute centrepiece 'Midnight Surprise.' [Feb 2008, p.112]
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Smart and funny. Bold and layered. Witty and affecting. Roll on the next reinvention.
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This is an album of genuine depth, one expressing the nervous conservative shockwaves which charge through party kids once they start to come down.
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Falling... is a remarkable leap forward; as Lightspeed Champion, Hynes is, at last, a serious contender.
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On Falling Off the Lavender Bridge, Hynes offers a comfortable (and more interesting) marriage of lush Brit-pop and Omaha-flavored country-rock.
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Falling Off the Lavender Bridge is a confident and enjoyable introduction to Hynes’ latest musical project.
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Q MagazineThe 10-minute 'Midnight Surprise' is the album's sprawling, beguiling centrepeice, but 'Everyone I Know Is Listening To Crunk' is its bewildered, adorable heartbeat. [Feb 2008, p.96]
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Hynes stumbles into typical self-indulgent twentysomething pitfalls -- his ideas can be overdetermined, and he often misjudges the thin line between disaffection and narcissism. Still, his imagination is formidable.
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This is an adolescent album, promising and irritating in equal measure.
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UncutIt's fitting that this debut contains at least half a dozen exquiste songs that could work in any idiom. [Feb 2008, p.80]
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Under The RadarThe record suffers from a lack of focus, with Haynes' almost passionless vocals adding little to the sometimes overly fussy arrangements. [Winter 2008, p.82]
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Lightspeed Champion sounds like an ambitious fan, eager to stuff his entire record collection into his solo debut, but with the uncluttered grace of a patient melodist, albeit one who can't resist naming a song 'Let the Bitches Die.'