Lucius – “Wildewoman”

This is the debut album by the band Lucius who are fronted by Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig with the addition of bandmates Dan Molad, Peter Lavish and Andrew Burri. Impressively, the band produced the album themselves and have created a stunningly melodic album. Even though the band clearly have a host of influences, they have preserved a unique spirit that can only ever be described as 100% Lucius.

The album opens with the title track, “Wildewoman” and the first thing that hits you is the luscious harmonies of the female co-vocals. Along with the overall smooth sound they just create a beautiful song. The whole album is literally full of delightful pop songs such as “Turn It Around” which also has an element of electronic cool about it.

The band also have a more acoustic, folk feel to their sound as shown on “Go Home”. This is repeated on “Two Of Us On The Run” which is a slower number, that provides a nice break from the more uplifting tracks. Whilst “Monsters ” is a chilled out song which has a melody that just floats along like a gentle stream.

It is on the more upbeat, pop sounding songs where the band really shine though.”Hey Doreen” is a potential hit song with it’s wonderful summer time feel. It is the song which could be picked up by radio and be a huge commercial hit a la Foster The People and their ‘Pumped up Kicks’. Like that band they perfectly mould an electro influence with a pure pop sensibility. “Tempest” is another great example of this. It’s a song with a gentle strum to it but then just explodes in to a beautiful perfect pop chorus. It’s not all just sweetness and light though, “Nothing Ordinary” adds an almost tribal feel to the sound and starts bordering on Kate Bush or maybe PJ Harvey territory.

With songs like “How Loud Your Heart Is” and “Until We Get There” you could easily see Lucius gaining comparisons to one of the bands of the moment, Haim. The sound is different in many ways but, as demonstrated by this song, they also have some common features i.e. great vocal harmonies and an underlying adult pop sound. One of the best tracks on the album, and that’s against very strong competition, is “Don’t Just Sit There”. You certainly won’t be able to sit there without at least tapping your foot to the intro. The rest of the song will leave you wanting to be running along a beach on a glorious sunny day.

This album is released at the end of March and it can only be hoped that this gives it time to build up momentum for some big summer single releases. The majority of songs on the album are beautiful, mature, pop songs but retain a feel of vibrancy and youthfulness. The vocals and harmonies give it a warm and dreamy feel. It could so easily be a soundtrack to the perfect afternoon of laying and then dancing in the warm sunshine.