Since the release of her first EP, Lying in The Sun, in 2014, Lera Lynn has been working non-stop. In that same year she created and released an album, The Avenues, and began working with producer T Bone Burnett and singer-songwriter Roseanne Cash on original material for the second season of HBO’s dark crime drama, True Detective, in which she was eventually cast as a bar room singer. When the show was released in 2015 the response to Lynn’s music was immense. The shows teaser trailer featuring her song, ‘The Only Thing Worth Fighting For’, was viewed more than 35 million times in just a few short months propelling her career forward at quick speed and enabling her to do a world tour in promotion of her latest album, Resistor, where she played sold out shows in London and Russia.
Co-produced by Joshua Grange, Resistor is quite different to Lynn’s earlier work. There is a definite lack of Country to the instrumentation throughout and one or two, like the opening track, ‘Shape Shifter’, felt quite out of place. Although there are no synths in sight, lyrics like: “how to get you on the line” and “hanging on your ride”, accompanied by the mechanic effects on her voice and the simple yet striking guitar chords solidify a very recognisable 80’s sound. Whilst it could be argued that it’s more polished sound would make it a better candidate for a single than ‘Drive’, its stark contrast to almost every other song would not make it the best advertisement.
‘Drive’ it’s self resonates perfectly with the rest of the album. It’s intricate yet subtle instrumentation coupled with Lynn’s lyrical ability manages to create dusky, swirling images of a life lived on the outskirts of an ugly town. Of desserts and dark skies, dive bars filled with husky strangers, late night encounters with dangerous creatures. ‘Run The Night’ is also a great example of this. Opening with twanged guitar, the use of brushes on the drums sounds like a rattle snake and the very subtle backing vocals bringing a haunting quality to the piece.
There also seems to be a lot of time put aside for instrumentation alone. Many of the songs are over 5 minutes long with huge parts dedicated to the build-up. ‘Slow Motion Countdown’ has a huge stretch of light guitar right before the final chorus and ‘What You Done’ has a outro that is made up of a solid minute of the song’s entrancing guitar riff, whilst being slowly taken over by a floaty-flute harmony before coming to a staggered end. Something rather unusual in normal terms but for the style of music Lynn produces it works perfectly.
Whilst there are elements of Alt Country in here Lynn seems to have taken on a whole new sound all of her own. An interesting, well produced and admirable album, Resistor has the power to garner a whole new audience for Lynn whilst not leaving behind her loyal fans, an enviable accomplishment.