After a long string of reviewing actual bands – even if they were only created in the studio – I return to a DIY effort in this seven-song EP from musical nomad Phil Lomac. On his latest release, which came out a few months ago, Lomac takes the experiences he’s had with a number of bands and ends an eight-year hiatus from recording his own music to put this album out. Lomac plays all the instruments on this except for programming the drums.
(That’s one of the few downfalls to this album, as the drum parts don’t always seem to work out just right with the rest. Since I listen to the album then read the liner notes now I can understand why and it makes me wonder how this would sound with a full band.)
The semi-title track Northern Lights starts this one like a house on fire. It’s upbeat to start yet after the bridge it moves in a direction that’s almost haunting. And fans of a wailing guitar (like me) will like the payoff at the end. (“Southern Stars” is referenced in the lyrics of the final song, Don’t Give Me Those Lines.) And once you get past the lengthy intro of World of Pain, you find a song that straddles the imaginary line between adult contemporary and active rock. It’s funny, though, that the long buildup comes to an abrupt end.
“Northern Cities” turns more melancholy with Read the Message, a slower song that almost has a country feel to it. That’s the letdown you need (so to speak) for the downbeat and emotional pair of tracks Don’t Know What Love Is and No More Troubles. These songs might just break your heart, particularly the bluesier Don’t Know where Phil wails, “I don’t know what love is/I just play the game.”
Talking to Myself brings us out of that mood a little bit, but it comes across as a complex song which begs to be stripped down a little bit. That may be a casualty of literally self-producing the album rather than the standard model of running it by the band and then having the producer carve it up or add other pieces, depending on what the band and market may want.
This brief (a little less than 25 minutes’ running time) set closes with Don’t Give Me Those Lines, which makes for a rousing rockabilly closer and an outro that lets Lomac play for a bit without singing in his world-weary voice.
The title would likely be influenced by Lomac’s oscillating between two places as he recorded this in Chicago, the home of his most recent previous band Lovely Tyrants, but now calls North Carolina home. On the whole, I thought this was a solid effort but wonder how it would have gone with an actual band behind him to help out. But you don’t have to take my word for it, listen for yourself and see what you think.