Infinite Light by Lightning Dust
LABEL: Jagjaguwar ||| RELEASE: August 8, 2009
“And she is a storyteller—the folk influence is unmistakable—but her stories are all wrapped in fog; it’s hard to know who’s who, or what’s happening, but she still somehow manages to be convincing.”
When Amber Webber, Lightning Dust’s singer, dives into the opening lines of ”˜Antonia Jane’, the opening track on Infinite Light, it’s readily apparent that the album is about her voice. She’s the kind of singer that can’t you can’t ignore, for better or worse. Her voice shakes, cracks, and wavers throughout. The album, in it's undeniable moodiness is deeply melancholy, and really couldn’t be any other way. If the songs make you maudlin, it’s a small price to pay for how amazing this album sounds.
The music itself is loose, watery, and the perfect accompaniment for her dreamy lyrics. All the instruments—and there are many—swim in echoes, blending together beautifully. The percussion is sparse, as is most of the instrumentation, but the sound is full. Everything is given room to breathe, and all the instruments, from strings to synths to guitars, are used to fill that space, not to stand out too much on their own. Joshua Wells, who presumably plays everything on the album, never tries to overwhelm. And for all the dreaminess, the best songs are the ones with a traditional rhythm section, which cuts through the ether and anchors their compositions.
Webber’s voice fits into these songs seamlessly, and her earnestness is compelling. She sounds like someone who just came in from the cold, still shivering, telling a story about how she got there. And she is a storyteller—the folk influence is unmistakable—but her stories are all wrapped in fog; it’s hard to know who’s who, or what’s happening, but she still somehow manages to be convincing. Aside from the fact that it is a sad album, and probably won’t appeal as much to those who have a low tolerance level for melancholy, the biggest flaw on the album is that more than a few songs end prematurely—three are under the 2:30 mark—just when they should be hitting their stride.
As a listener, warming up to Infinite Light was similar to the experience of stepping into a rowboat: on your first step the boat moves out from under you, and your weight feels like it’s going to take you overboard. You have to ease yourself into it, but once you finally sit down and leave shore, all you can do is look over the open water and be amazed at how beautiful everything really is.
REVIEWED BY DANIEL MUHLENBERG
DANIEL'S FAVORITE TRACKS: "Dreamer," "The Times," "Wondering What Everyone Knows"
