After a superb second album (“Cursed”) that was on my list of favorite albums back in 2021, Lucid Sins are back and manage to impress us once more. For those who are not familiar with them yet this is a great duo from Glasgow, Scotland. Andreas Jonsson is on vocals, guitars and keyboard while Ruaraidh Sanachan is behind the drum kit, mellotron and backing vocals.
Their soundscape is part of the occult rock revival that takes us back to the late psychedelic 60s – early 70s classic rock era, yes, close enough to what Pelander did with Witchcraft, but Lucis Sins have their own point of view. What is clever in their approach is the fact that they use the ideal amount of different elements in their music recipe and in this way, they are close to the folk rock of Fairport Convention, close to the straight forward electrical compositions of Blue Öyster Cult and close to the dark elements of Black Widow while the psychedelic flavor nicely gives the final touch. And in between all these tracks they give you some wonderful celtic ballads (“Sanctuary Stone” is a cover on Midwinter) that top up the final result.
Important role have the guest musicians in the album, the vocals of Hanna Tuulikki on “The Raven’s” (a beautiful composition) and “Sanctuary Stone”, the clarinet by Alex Ward on “Catch The Wind”, the hammond of Stuart Coleman on “Take Me With You” are all characteristic elements of a work that is full of beautiful rhythms, great surprises (eg. the non rock organs like mellotron, recorder etc), the warm production and the variety among the ten compositions, compositions that definitely don’t include any filler or mediocre song and I really loved the smooth transaction from straight forward rock tracks to slow burn psychedelic tunes. So, with all that I already mentioned, plus the great packaging (nice lyrics, beautiful cover art) there is no doubt that you are going to love them and personally this was easily one of the best albums in 2023.
