Lord Huron The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1
There’s a lyrical theme I’ve run across several times this year, centered around the idea of wanting what you have. In fact, Jason Isbell and Fust hit that vein on the same release day in March, with Isbell’s “Good While It Lasted” (“And all that I needed was all that I had”) and Fust’s “Jody” (“I’ll never get enough of what I’ve got”) both addressing that “bird in the hand” dichotomy from different vantage points, relationship-wise. On Lord Huron’s fifth album, though, that bird (along with the two in the bush) have already flown, leaving songwriter Ben Schneider to wonder at just what he’s lost while asking what other paths he could have (should have?) followed. The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1 is road music for the route not chosen.
One of The Cosmic Selector’s first singles, “Nothing I Need,” sets up that “Am I good with what I have” question. The banjo-led tune has Schneider firmly coming down on the “No” side of the query – “I’ve got everything I want/And I’ve got nothing that I need.” The album’s title, according to Schneider, refers to a jukebox-like gadget on the album’s cover that would, mythically, allow one to choose their fate as easily as choosing a song, and the singer touches on that later in “Nothing I Need” – “But you’re the one I’ll never get, and you’re the one thing that I need.” The dream-like album opener, on the other hand, has Schneider, with near-whispered vocals, following an entirely different route; that of anonymity – “With a little bit of money I’ll get gone, and I won’t be found.”
That dream state continues in “Is There Anybody Out There,” but with a less isolated destination in mind – “Am I ever gonna find my way to you…We haven’t met but I wrote this song for you.” Actress Kristen Stewart shows up to narrate the pitch-black “Who Laughs Last” as she and Schneider speed through different planes of the same sparse landscape in search of change – “Now that I’ve left that place, I feel like someone for the first time in my life.” Where are they headed? We diverge from Stewart’s story, but Schneider changes from driving away to arriving at something like a new home. The pedal steel-laced “Life Is Strange” caps this unusual journey in a place no more certain than anywhere else along the road – “So leave/If you must/You can stay, but nobody does” – but filled with possibility: “And I’ll wait forever right here if you want me to.” In Schndeider’s roadmap of infinite fates, just like our very real, more limited world, nothing is promised. It’s about finding the hope-filled route worth taking.
Song I Can’t Wait to Hear Live: “Bag of Bones” – on a record full of skewed road tunes, this jangly ode to loneliness-by-choice – “Nothing like rain to wash you clean/So I slept in the cold and left unseen” – will have you pulling out the roadmap to nowhere.
The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1 was produced by Ben Schneider and Matthew Neighbour, with additional production by Mark Barry, Rob Bisel, Jay Joyce and Ben Tolliday; engineered by Neighbour, Barry, Schneider, Tolliday, Jason Hall, Bobby Loudon and Amadeo Pace; mixed by Joyce, Hall, Neighbour, Lars Stalfors and Hamish Patrick; and mastered by Ruairi O’Flaherty, Greg Calb and Steve Fallonei. All songs written by Schneider. Lord Hurn is Schneider, Mark Barry, Miguel Briseno and Tom Renaud. Additional musicians include Tyler Cash (piano, keyboards), Fred Eltringham (drums, percussion), Jedd Hughes (acoustic guitar), Micah Hulscher (organ), Jay Joyce (electric guitar, synths, percussion), Joel King (bass guitar), Todd Lombardo (banjo, acoustic guitar), Kazu Makino (featured vocals), Gabe Noel (bass guitar), Russ Pahl (steel guitar), Sacha Schneider (piano), Kristen Stewart (featured vocals), Mason Stoops (guitar), Adam Tressler (nylon guitar, electric guitar), Ben Tolliday (cello), Joey Waronker (additional drums) and Spencer Zahn (upright bass). Stockholm Studio Orchestra conducted by Erik Arvinder and recorded and engineered by Arvinder and Willem Bleeker.
Go here to order The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1 (out July 18): https://store.lordhuron.com/collections/music
Check out tour dates here: https://www.lordhuron.com/tour/#/
