Josh's Review of
Lucia - From the Land of Volcanos
Finally. After almost three years of waiting and delays, I've at last heard Lucia's solo album, "From the Land of Volcanos". So, how is it? Well, it's good overall, though it's hurt by inconsistency. The album is filled with great moments, but gets bogged down with a number of limp, generic songs. Tracks like "Northern Star", "Fear" and "Feels Like Summer" are instant classics, but clunkers like "I Don't Care" and "Ordinary Girl" fall flat. If the worst songs on the album were even half as good as the best songs, "From the Land of Volcanos" would be a masterpiece. As it is, it's simply a good album with some stellar moments. In the end, though, it's definitely worth picking up whenever it gets a proper release.
Track by track review:
So Clever - Decent, if somewhat generic, pop track. Nice funky bassline. Catchy.
I Don't Care - Kind of a standard chick rock song. Rather forgettable.
Northern Star - Beautiful, piano-laden ballad. Reminescent of some of Madonna's best work, but unique enough to stand out. This is really a gem of a track; I'm suprised it didn't get single treatment.
Fear - Opens with some nice piano work, then moves on to a great combo of a string section and rock guitar. Absolutely knockout chorus. Wonderful, wonderful song.
Feels Like Summer - Nice, poppy technorock with a groovy, anthemic guitar riff. The lyrics and their hip-hop-esque delivery are a tad cheesy, but they do have a propulsive quality to them.
What You Become - The first of the Sascha-produced tracks. Dark, dense and electronic with a nice hard edge. Sounds a lot better than the sample we originally heard, though it's a little too straightforward.
We Are Angels - Upbeat, pop-rock type song. It's beyond cheesy, but it's also really catchy.
Who Asked You - Another Sascha-produced track. Slow, atmospheric and kinda loungey. Sadly, it's also pretty boring.
I Will - Just about everybody has heard this already, so I probably don't need to say much about it. I've never much cared for it, but I have to admit that it is rather catchy.
Monkey Puzzle Tree - Really upbeat rock track. Lucia throws a nice little mdfmk reference into one of the verses. Co-written with one of the guys from Siouxsie and the Banshees.
Little Rose - Yet another song produced by Sascha. It's quite good, but I prefer the version we heard in the sample posted to Lucia's old website. It had a raw quality to it that's missing in the over-produced album version.
Ordinary Girl - The final track on the album and also the final Sascha-produced track. Cool guitar riff during the verses, but the chorus falls flat. Not a very good note to close the album on.
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