We Are Not Two, We Are One: Lucius's Sophomore Album

Lucius

It's been a couple of years since I reviewed Lucius's smashing debut album, "Wildewoman" and since their song "Turn It Around" became a recognizable hit, even played on a Super Bowl commercial.

For their second album, "Good Grief", they collected songs written over the last two years and assembled a record that sounds much different than their last album.  Whereas the previous record had a '60s beehive sound, this record has more of a soul and R&B vibe, with strong use of '80s synthesizers. There are less guitars and more synthesizers.  Yet the strength of this band remains the powerful voices of two lead singers - Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig.  Their voices are similar, and they sing in unison, continuing to exercise the mirror motif in their videos.  When the music can be not very interesting at times, the voices of these two singers is a redemptive quality.

The album took a few listens to get used to, mainly because it is not "Wildewoman".  But after a few listens, it started to grow on me, although this will never be counted among my favorites.  It is just not my type of music, reflecting a period of the '80s that I just did not get into.  However, this is a pleasant listen and has a few strong points.

For instance, The Pointer Sisters feel of "Truce" and "Born Again Teen" don't do much for me, but the Sheryl Crow sound of "Better Look Back" is pretty cool, and the demo version at the end is even better.  Avoid the gaudy David Bowie cover, "Let's Dance", but definitely check out "Going Insane" where their vocals unravel at the end until it does really sound like they are going insane.  My favorite tracks are "Madness" with its orchestra meshing well with the vocals and "Something About You" with its new wave synths and Taylor Dayne harmony.  They do have some tender moments like the piano ballad, "My Heart Got Caught On Your Sleeve" with the music stripped down to bare minimum to show the true force of the duet's voices.  "Dusty Trails" goes kind of gospel, and "Strangers" goes back to the '60s with its Everly Brothers mood and lyrics that aptly state:

"We are not two

We are one"

And the acoustic "You Were On My Mind"does what this band does best - another '60s jangle.

This is a decent record and definitely better than anything playing on mainstream radio.  But I am still glad to be done with it and move on to the next review.