With their highly anticipated fifth album, “Versions Of Us”, arriving early next month, Newcastle rock band Lanterns On The Lake have one more single up their sleeves. “Real Life,” which follows “The Likes of Us” and “String Theory,” is a fuzzy, anthemic benchmark for the group, as vocalist Hazel Wilde’s singing soars to unfathomable heights. Bringing Radiohead drummer Philip Selway into the fold was a genius transition for Lanterns On The Lake, who continue to live up to their Mercury Prize nomination and high critical favor with ease and grace.
“Versions Of Us” is not just the band’s best offering to-date, but it’s also shaping up to be one of the most-memorable rock ‘n’ roll projects of 2023. Under the productional tutelage of their guitarist Paul Gregory, who mixed the album in his bedroom at home in North Shields, Lanterns On The Lake have assembled a beautiful nine-song document of five musicians pondering whether or not they can change their fates and continue becoming better people as they grow older, have children and tumble through a world closing in on itself.
Wilde says of “Real Life”: “This song is about living your imaginary fully realized life. It’s about the promise that you make to yourself and others of something better rather than living in the moment and accepting who and where you are. It’s essentially one for the daydreamers.”
“Versions of Us” is the most empowering album yet from the band. In exploring whether we can change fate or are doomed to repeat the same mistakes in life, this powerful collection of songs ultimately alights on hope.
“Assured art-rockers bristle with brilliance… With Radiohead’s Philip Selway drumming they’ve gone meaty, beaty, big and bouncy, fleshing out their sound… Hazel Wilde’s magnificent voice conveys their imploding-world lyrics with effective dynamic fluctuations. From the tense, vivid opener ‘The Likes Of Us’ to the restraint revving up to a roar of ‘Thumb Of War’, they’re laudably aiming for the stars, seeking hope among modern life’s rubble.” Record Collector – 4 stars ****
“Lanterns On The Lake’s fifth album arrives with wind-in-your-hair exhilaration… Singer Hazel Wilde seems to have plugged into a new power supply – one strung between Natalie Merchant and Matt Berninger – while the drumming of Radiohead’s Philip Selway cranks the internal pressure higher… “Versions Of Us” is full of emotional blue plaque moments, humans marking their time on a grandly heartfelt scale.”
MOJO – 4 stars ****
The Fat Angel Sings 