![]() ![]() The three central characters in the books (and thus the songs) are Lord Huron, his traveling companion Admiral Blaquefut, and his love interest Helena.The tracks on the album, while each corresponding to the title of a book in the series, do not tell the story in the same order as the imaginary books do. ![]() Similarly, the books themselves do not appear to exist.But Johnson did not write these books either! That is because he does not exist.They are credited to the author George Ranger Johnson. Schneider envisioned the album Lonesome Dreams as a soundtrack of sorts to a book series of the same name.The band’s name derives from Lake Huron, which frontman Ben Schnieder spent time on the shores of as a child, but the band itself is based in Los Angeles.So I’ll try to break it down into bullet points to ensure that this doesn’t get too long-winded and confusing. And I’ve chosen it as the subject of this month’s “nostalgia review”, even though to my ears this thing is still very new.Įxplaining the concept behind Lord Huron is likely to be met with a hefty dose of “Wait, so let me get this straight…” type responses. ![]() Their debut album, Lonesome Dreams, pretty much instantly rocketed its way into the upper tiers of my best-of-the-decade list when I made a point of listening to it in full. Really all it took was a single song on a personally curated playlist (and later another for good measure) and I was pretty much instantly hooked. Turns out I had heard them before, but never heard of them. Very late in 2019, in the middle of a gargantuan attempt to catch up with as much great music as possible that I had missed out on earlier in the decade, my wife managed to blindside me with the discovery of a band that I had honestly never heard of before. The band has evolved a bit in the years since, but nothing they’ve done since then has hit me nearly as hard. Lord Huron’s unique habit of weaving together pieces of a story in anachronic order, told from the perspective of a not-so-reliable narrator, as well as their occasional use of electronic and worldbeat elements, helps to set their songwriting style apart from influences like Fleet Foxes and My Morning Jacket that they quite obviously wore on their sleeves at this point. It is unclear whether the Lonesome Dreams series will continue.In Brief: An astounding debut that immediately transports me back to the days when the indie folk revival was still going strong. The series unfolds non-chronologically, following the wide-ranging adventures of several characters, (chiefly Huron, Admiral Blaquefut and Helena) whose stories intertwine. The list also includes a novel called “Setting Sun,” which does not have a corresponding track and is listed as unfinished. On George Ranger Johnson’s website, the Lonesome Dreams series novels are listed by publication date, which do not follow the order of the album’s tracklist. ![]() The character, Huron is perhaps somewhat self-inspired, as Schneider himself grew up in Okemos, Michigan and later moved to Los Angeles. Throughout the album, Lord Huron narrates the ongoing conflict of Huron’s longing for adventure out west against the gravity of his home and Helena, the girl he left behind. The songs of the album (and connecting novels) follow the adventures of three characters, Lord Huron, his companion Admiral Blaquefut, and Helena. The album’s ten tracks represent a series of novels by fictional author George Ranger Johnson, created by band leader Ben Schneider. Lonesome Dreams is the debut album by LA-based indie band, Lord Huron. ![]()
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