vide noir

I'm not quite sure why, but while standing in a tiny bookshop somewhere in Delaware in 2006 I was drawn to pick up a book by Raymond Chandler. Everything I've read for complete pleasure since then has been influenced by the decision to pick up that book.

I don't even know if I knew what I was getting in to with that book. Discovering the story of Philip Marlowe, hardened private detective with just a hint of a soft side for women in distress (hey, it was written in 1939), in The Big Sleep was my entry into the world of noir. I hadn't at that time started watching the AFI list, and I was just starting to get into checking out movies from the campus library - all film noir.

It's the definition of "film noir" that is so difficult to pin down. Is it just a type of hard contrast expressionist cinematography? Is it only stories born from the hardboiled pulp fiction rack with lead characters that are both overly cynical and obviously sexually motivated? Honestly, the debate about this film genre (which I also really enjoy) still rages some almost eighty years later.

But what happens when the idea of noir is placed on a rock band? I feel like if someone simply thinks of the darkness of noir they're going to get something more toward metal (suggestions welcome here). For this week's album, that's not quite right. I have always thought of the music of Lord Huron more like it belonged as the soundtrack to Casablanca if its characters were in the setting of Treasure of the Sierra Madre. It's always been breathy and expansive like wide open western spaces. It's had that acoustic forward feel like walking through the desert watching tumbleweed blow by. 

Their first album, Lonesome Dreams, fit this bill perfectly. Their 2015 release Strange Trails pushed their envelope just a little bit further - a bit more electric guitar, but staying true to the heavy echo & reverb that was the hallmark of Lonesome Dreams.

They're back with a new album called Vide Noir, and it is their most mature work yet. They are pushing the envelope of their career further away from the noir vibe of their first two records (album name not withstanding, maybe it's an in joke?), which is in my opinion good and bad. What's happening here is when it's good it's still really good - check out the track "Never Ever." This is electric rock that is now the driving through the desert song, instead of walking. Dusty tires with the top down in the '42 Chevy has replaced the pair of pointy boots in the sand. But Vide Noir has also moved into new territory with songs like "Ancient Names (Part I)" and "Ancient Names (Part II)." These come from a different seedy underbelly of the west; more like a picture from a punkier skid row than that of the 40's. It even feels like they've tried to write something that's closer to a pop tune on tracks like "The Balancer's Eye."

It's growth for Lord Huron, and growth is good. They've taken the best parts of their noir past and brought them ever that much closer to full color.

Recommended tracks: "Lost In Time and Space," "Never Ever," "Back From the Edge," "Moonbeam," "When the Night Is Over"