For a group who typically wait between four and six years to release an album, Dark Beings, LAL's followup to their 2016 LP Find Safety, almost feels like a surprise release.
In fact, the sixth LP from the Toronto duo benefits greatly from its swiftness, as Dark Beings picks up the energy, passion and inventiveness from its predecessor and totally sprints with it. Tracks like the moody, spacious electronic opener "Dark Beings" and the groovy, direct chanter "It Was to Be You" feel simultaneously conceptual and completely alien from one another.
But what makes songs like the industrious/industrial "Losing Myself" and the yearning "I Am Not Your Victim" sound so powerful lies in how the duo manage to come off so self-reflective. Vocalist Rosina Kazi delivers personal and socially political lyrics that deal with issues of identity, mental health and the degradation of the planet, while multi-instrumentalist Nicholas "Murr" Murray matches her thoughtful disposition with some of the most well-crafted, challenging and aurally pleasing beats this side of Warp Records.
Dark Beings is a triumph of an album, the best of LAL's strong career, and hands-down one of the most introspective and aware albums of 2019.
(Coax)In fact, the sixth LP from the Toronto duo benefits greatly from its swiftness, as Dark Beings picks up the energy, passion and inventiveness from its predecessor and totally sprints with it. Tracks like the moody, spacious electronic opener "Dark Beings" and the groovy, direct chanter "It Was to Be You" feel simultaneously conceptual and completely alien from one another.
But what makes songs like the industrious/industrial "Losing Myself" and the yearning "I Am Not Your Victim" sound so powerful lies in how the duo manage to come off so self-reflective. Vocalist Rosina Kazi delivers personal and socially political lyrics that deal with issues of identity, mental health and the degradation of the planet, while multi-instrumentalist Nicholas "Murr" Murray matches her thoughtful disposition with some of the most well-crafted, challenging and aurally pleasing beats this side of Warp Records.
Dark Beings is a triumph of an album, the best of LAL's strong career, and hands-down one of the most introspective and aware albums of 2019.