Posts Tagged ‘Thunder Follows The Light’

MUTUAL BENEFIT – ” Thunder Follows The Light “

Posted: September 27, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Lightning and thunder are so common that it’s easy to take for granted their dramatic majesty—the way the former crackles against a purple sky, or how the latter can sound like the house is coming down around you. On Thunder Follows the Light, Brooklyn’s Jordan Lee, aka Mutual Benefit, takes a decidedly softer turn, using those elements of weather as bookends for songs about reaching for love and comfort. Rather than offering flash-bang pyrotechnics, Lee and his band deliver an earthy, slow-burning LP with a cozy, comforting terroir all its own. 

Lee chronicles his travails in nature with a light, reedy tenor that floats atop his lush arrangements. With its folk-pop core—typically adorned in tasteful layers of strings and saxophone—Thunder Follows the Light strongly recalls Sufjan Stevens’s classic Illinois,if Stevens had chosen to hike the Appalachian Trail rather than study the Prairie State. Indeed, two of Lee’s tracks are Appalachian-adjacent; the sparkling “Mountain’s Shadow” was inspired by North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Parkway, while the gentle, folksier “New History” explores his parents’ roots in Appalachian Ohio.

Throughout the record, Lee connects the need to find internal solace examinations of the natural world around him. He opens “Storm Cellar Heart” with lyrics about waking up early enough to see morning glory flowers bloom because a neighbor told him “that it helps to notice the small things.” Later in the track, he nods to a simple gesture that holds a universal appeal: “When you hold me, it’s so much better / It’s enough to drown out the thunder,” he murmurs.

Lee closes the record with “Thunder Follows,” which rolls along to rhythms that recall the distant rumble of a faraway storm. “Peace is more than just a season coming around again,” he sings, fingerpicked guitar and faint banjo plinks spiraling down around him in a delicate cascade. It’s a reminder that, though finding peace may not be as effortless as the passing of seasons, it can be a lasting presence. You just have to find your own version of it.

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This is one of those great albums where I just keep restarting it once it’s finished because i want more and don’t get tired or it. I personally keep coming back to “Stone Cellar Heart” – waking up early, acting quickly, noticing the small things – I can feel all that. Anyways give it a spin if for nothing else than to chill out for a smidge, but I suggest snagging a copy.

released September 21, 2018

Written by Jordan Lee 
With writing contributions from
Mike Clifford, Jake Falby, and Dillon Zahner

MUTUAL BENEFIT – ” Thunder Follows The Light “

Posted: September 23, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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“Thunder Follows The Light” contemplates the ongoing destruction of the outer world and how it shapes the storms of our inner ones. There are meditations on the environment, collective struggle, death, rebirth, reasons to believe it’s worth the fight.
For nearly a decade, Jordan Lee has crafted pop experiments blending orchestral instrumentation and ambient electronic sounds. “Thunder Follows the Light” is a testament to the power of music as a space for collective processing and emotional response. Like his other releases, it is a highly collaborative document. Its sprawling chamber folk features many returning collaborators—violinist Jake Falby, guitarist Mike Clifford, percussionist Dillon Zahner—as well as first-time players—vocalist Johanne Swanson (of Yohuna), drummer Felix Walworth (of Told Slant), saxophonist Gabriel Birnbaum (of Wilder Maker). Jordan can honestly do no wrong. He is absolutely growing and maturing musically before our very ears, and I for one am honored to be a part of it. Finishing an album is such a huge endeavor that I always feel like it leaves a permanent mark on me. I’m glad for what this process has taught me and am excited to live in this little universe for a while and play these songs around the world!
Lee’s aggressive pursuit of art-making for himself is empathetic and outward-facing, looking both to the past and the future with warmth and hopefulness. “Peace is more than just a season coming ‘round again,” he sings on two different songs—and the emphasis seems intentional: suggesting that harmony of the mind and the heart do not just transpire but must be worked for, growing from deep-rooted foundations. In the world that birthed Thunder Follows the Light, it feels like medicine.
Released September 21st, 2018
Written by Jordan Lee 
With writing contributions from
Mike Clifford, Jake Falby, and Dillon Zahner 

‘Come To Pass’ appears on the album ‘Thunder Follows The Light’ out 21 September 2018 through Transgressive Records

MUTUAL BENEFIT – ” Come To Pass / Shedding Skin “

Posted: July 31, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Mutual Benefit shares new couplet of tracks, “Shedding Skin” and “Come To Pass”

Multi-instrumentalist Jordan Lee, aka Mutual Benefit, has shared another duo of tracks that follow from the first couplet “New History”, and “Storm Cellar Heart”.

Having announced his forthcoming album at the same time as the first two tracks, today Lee shares the second wave of singles, “Shedding Skin” and “Come To Pass”.

His forthcoming album Thunder Follows The Light will consist of tracks accumulated over the past two years and will hold both returning and new collaborators.

On the first of two, “Come To Pass”, Lee states, “These songs came about at the same time on a busted 5 string guitar when I shut off my phone and declared my bedroom a makeshift, artist residency for a week. I had just returned from a tour that did a lot of meandering around the Appalachian Mountain region right as the “Make America Great Again” signs started popping up more and more. “Come to Pass” is a refutation of the idea that there was ever a golden age to return back to. Both personally and politically I’m afraid of this sort of constructed nostalgia that keeps us looking backwards instead of a having a powerful enough imagination to see the hard truths of the present but work towards a better future.”

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On the second track “Shedding Skin”, Lee explains, “I kept thinking about a town where I saw hundreds of these translucent cicada bodies from where they had clung to a tree, hardened, and then burst out of their own shell. This ghostly sight made me pay more attention to how things naturally regenerate, how loss is part of the fuel of growth. It became a powerful reminder that things shouldn’t stay the same, including parts of ourselves.”
Thunder Follows The Light is due out 21st September via Transgressive on all platforms, including a special edition vinyl. Mutual Benefit has announced a UK and US tour that sees him play London’s Oslo on 30 October.

MUTUAL BENEFIT – ” Thunder Follows The Light “

Posted: May 25, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Mutual Benefit, the songwriting outlet for multi-instrumentalist and producer Jordan Lee, is pleased to announce details of a new album Thunder Follows The Light on September 21st via Transgressive Records.

Commenting on New History, one of the two first tracks to be taken from the album, which features vocals from Johanne Swanson (of Yohuna), he says:

I think people in power benefit greatly from a general lack of historic memory in the US. I’ve been wondering if the first step to imagining a more just world is to study our history better, not just the linear revisionist one that is oft-repeated but all the unsung champions of equal rights as well as the acts of unthinkable cruelty that humans are also capable of.

Following his last outing, 2016’s acclaimed Skip A Sinking Stone, Lee marks his return with a patient and prismatic collection of songs accrued over the past two years. Lee — who grew up in Ohio and is currently based in New York  has crafted pop experiments for almost a decade, blending orchestral instrumentation and ambient electronic sounds. His new album features an array of friends and many returning collaborators.

New History is the album’s truest folk song, with twangy harmonica and slide guitar. Its inspiration came to him while spending time in the economically depressed area of Ohio where his parents grew up.

The other song shared today, Storm Cellar Heart, is an ode to taking shelter and the fraught impulse to hide from the loudness of the outside world. It’s more of a long question than an answer: “Is it storms that help make the heart grow?” Says Lee: “Writing this provided a reminder that while moments of recharging are important, I didn’t want to get too entrenched in escapism instead of the messiness of living.”

He has also confirmed an all-too-rare solo UK show – playing London’s The Lexington this week (May 24th).