The third full-length album of Lemolo, (out on October 11, 2019) ‘Swansea‘, wasn’t a surprise to me. I remember excellent songs from their previous albums, like ‘Letters‘, ‘We Felt The Fall‘, ‘White Flag‘, ‘Heart‘, ‘On Again, Off Again‘.
Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Meagan Grandall from Seattle, is the brain and the heart of the band. ‘Swansea‘ follows the music path, of their first two full-length albums, The ‘Kaleidoscope‘ (2012) & ‘Red Right Return‘ (2015), but it’s more ambient, more vulnerable and floats into a dreamscape.
‘South Of Sound‘ starts the album atmospherically and continues into a heavy, slow tempo rhythm that reserves an excellent refrain and epic finale with strings and synthesizers. The first single off the album, ‘High Tide‘, is the second track. Mid-tempo, rhythmic and piano/synth-driven. What a fresh and distinctive sound! The self-titled song is the first masterpiece here: Magnificent piano, impressive melody, divine, almost ethereal vocal harmonies of Meagan Grandall. Next follows ‘Mirror‘ which is lost into serenity and beauty, while ‘Seventeen‘ is the second masterpiece of the album. Blissful acoustic ambient with a fabulous melody and the haunting voice of Meagan, where, at 2:50 minutes into the song, a rhythmic mid-tempo explosion drives to a fantastic ending. ‘Interlude‘ finalizes ideally the album into a weird piano melody surrounded by strange sounds.
‘Swansea‘ is wonderful and dreamy, delicate and melancholic with a sense of loss and solitude. It’s a brilliant piece of art exactly like its cover implies; Surely one of the very best albums of 2019.
“To me, Swansea is a concept of the place where we go when we find ourselves in our own solitude. It’s not necessarily a sad place, but a place where we grow and learn how to find our own strength” Meagan has stated.
And what a wonderful world that is…
Theodoros Rentesis