November 17, 2001, Review of Lucid Nation’s “The New Return”

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Lucid Nation: “The New Return”

Fifteen songs from the L.A. improv collective known as Lucid Nation, the only band I know that uncompromisingly insists that all of their lyrics are improvised along with the music.

“The New Return” begins as if midstream with “Point of No Return,” a song built on the changes to the Velvet Underground’s “Sister Ray,” but given a slightly country-western twang. The second song—“Note to Self”—starts off as if a dark gem from the Joy Division catalog before Tamra’s voice comes in and brands it 100% Lucid Nation. Although the songs that follow share a dark cynicism (in “Sweet Misery” Tamra sings “I like to be the downer at the party—I love my misery. I can just look at a puppy and feel sorry. That’s how fucked I am”) what saves them from self-pity is their wit. And that’s the main problem with “The New Return”—what this CD demands is a lyric sheet. It’s frustrating and tiring for a literate and interested listener to decipher the lyrics throughout—not only are they dense but they’re also mixed down to the point where they’re often (such as in “Seven Stringer”) completely unintelligible. But in other songs, such as the charming “Favorite Star” and the softly sad “Contrary,” they resolve into a refrain that slowly becomes audible, almost beneath the level of consciousness.

Lucid Nation’s love of improvisation and rough edges also informs the music and even the mastering itself—you can hear the recording machine turn on and off, songs begin in mid-phrase, there are extraneous noises and studio banter (including Tamra’s attempt to out-Ramone the Ramones with her count-in to “Welcome to America”). As for the songs themselves—extended improvisations mostly—their textures vary wildly from the lyricism of “Contrary” to the elaborated train wreck of “Absence Breaks the Heart Grown Fonder” to the slinky and insidiously sexy “Pretty Familiar” to the dark industrial landscape of “Casual Ties” to the Jim Morrison swagger of “Somewhere New” to the punky rock posing of “Seven Stringer” to the slowed-down and spacey “Mr. Slow.” And Lucid Nation’s instrumental chops are highlighted by finely articulated production skills. Bravo.