Light Upon the Lake

Sure, literally speaking all of the songs off of Light Upon the Lake conjure up failure to maintain a relationship with a loved one, but how can you relate a new band’s debut record--and one that’s so so fully realized to the point of even having a mission statement in the Whitney, as a man, as a writing prompt and concept--with a break up? If anything, it’s the start of something new.

A better summertime album will be hard to find this year. You can expect to see Whitney's name on a lot of year-end lists and deservedly so.

Whitney might not reinvent anything, but they sound perfect right now, and it’s hard to argue with being in the right place at the right time.

Their dulcet, vintage tones intoxicate and overwhelm the senses, while the cutting lyrics set the table for a thoroughly emotional listening experience.

Like the image its title evokes then, Light Upon The Lake is a transient pleasure--but a vivid one while it lasts.

Including Light Upon the Lake's one jaunty instrumental ("Red Moon"), the 30-minute set of ten tunes will leave many wanting more, an auspicious trait for an otherwise satisfying debut.

Anyone who's ever loved a record by Midlake or the Fleet Foxes should investigate immediately. [#361, p.117]

A big part of these songs’ appeal is the youth-bruised character in the lyrics.

The record’s finest moments relate to everyone’s lives, in one way or another. Whether it’s golden youth or present day regrets, there’s something to cling onto.

Songs such as "Golden Days" and "No Woman" combine the fragile longing of indie-pop with the superior songwriting smarts of classic early-70s rock, in a way that should reel in fans of Josh Rouse and Liam Hayes. [Jul 2016, p.82]

Those with a low tolerance for winsome male falsettos may wish to steer clear, but anyone who loves the strain of American pop that began when the Byrds started branching out in 1966 and 1967 should rush to hear this delightful confection.

With just one track over four minutes and only ten cuts overall, Light Upon the Lake is the kind of record you could easily find yourself blazing through three or four times in a row without even realizing.

Bass, horns, strings, organ and choir provide the backbone, and when Whitney allow themselves to kick it up a gear and really let rip, as on ‘Golden Days’ (with its cathartic “Na na na” outro) or the George Harrison-meets-The Band magnificence of ‘Dave’s Song’, they’re untouchable.

In addition to nostalgia, they also use the easy weapons of doing that juxtaposition thing of pairing cheery music with sad lyrics and vocals and putting the other single (a nice climbing keyboard line in that one) wisely as what would be the opener of the second side if this were the vinyl age; spacing out the good stuff instead of front-loading the record. The other songs aren’t bad, but their pleasures are pleasant at best.

Pleasant but forgettable-in-the-long term albums are, after all, a dime a dozen. But this does stand out as one of the best.