The destination of some road trips can simply be the journey. Lomelda’s latest release, Thx, takes us on a drive away from lead vocalist, Hannah Read’s, small town of Silsbee, Texas. Read’s older brother Tommy, and drummer Zach Daniel are along for the ride.
Thx opens with “Interstate Vision” where Read shows a nervous energy as she sings “Interstates are not what I want / Headlights scare me into visions.” This uncertainty continues through the album on “From Here”, a track about separation and the desire to be found. Read sings, “Can you find me? I’m on Bedford / I drove over the East River / What am I doing here?” The song reflects the difficulty of goodbyes “through the backseat window.”
All of the songs deal with distance and the resulting heartache. The toll of geographic separation mixes with grief to create a strange calm. Thx stretches time from her childhood in “Out There” all the way to the present. The vastness of time and space in this 34-minute album takes you on a trip much farther than a compact car on I-70 ever could in the same amount of time.
All road trips must come to an end, and while this is no exception, Lomelda certainly does not run out of gas. Thx ends on a fierce yet warm note as she realizes she’s not where she hoped to be but she knows there is another trip in her future. Thx was released on September 8th through Double Double Whammy, two years after Lomelda’s debut album, Forever.
Recommended If You Like: Dream Girl, Laura Marling, Angel Olsen, Florist, Andy Shauf
Recommended Tracks: 1 (Interstate Vision), 5 (Out There), 10 (Only World)
Do Not Play: None
Written by Miranda Roberts on 09/10/2017