Brighter Wounds

Son Lux’s sound is decisively of its time: sleek, cerebral, mixing the stutter and space of hip-hop with the poise of classical music and the passionate anxiety of Radiohead. Their second album as a trio—the project had previously functioned more or less as a solo outlet for frontman/composer Ryan Lott—is, like 2015’s *Bones*, a felt, densely textured affair. It mixes heavily processed acoustic sounds with pure electronics and Lott’s tremulous, expressive voice, hinting at soul (“Slowly”), breakbeat (“Surrounded”), and operatic anthem (“Resurrection”), pushing the rock-band template to its horizon.

Son Lux is the grand genre-less dream of Los Angeles composer Ryan Lott brought to roiling, vivid life with the help of two New Yorkers, guitarist Rafiq Bhatia and drummer Ian Chang. Each is a writer, producer, and performer with omnivorous taste and a penchant for wild improvisation—a band whose mix of electronic pop, unusual soul, and outright experimentalism feels more inviting than ever on the project's fifth album, 'Brighter Wounds.' The songs therein leave behind Son Lux's typically universal themes for deeply personal fare. While making 'Brighter Wounds,' Lott became a father to a baby boy and lost a best friend to cancer. Days of "firsts" were also days of "lasts," and the normal fears that accompany parenthood were compounded by a frightening new reality—Lott's son arrived shortly after Election Day. These songs draw on all of that: warm reflections of a fading past, pain wrenched from a still-present loss, and a mix of anxiety and hope for a future that is promised to no one.

On the synth-rock project’s fifth album, the stakes feel higher, with new fatherhood and the perilous state of the world inspiring searching introspection and dramatic gestures.

Son Lux finds transcendence on the eclectic Brighter Wounds, while Dashboard Confessional’s Crooked Shadows, though undoubtedly polished, is just… fine. These, plus Franz Ferdinand and The Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon in this week’s notable new releases.

Their debut for the City Slang label, Brighter Wounds is fifth album overall for Son Lux, formerly the solo project of ghostly voiced pianist, composer, and timbre manipulator Ryan Lott.

In this modern era of alternative music where true distinction of craft is hard to come by, there's a certain fearlessness needed in order to reach it.

Since the release of their 2008 debut album, Son Lux have proved to be a mercurial band that are capable of straddling the thin line between pop and

The music on Brighter Wounds is richly detailed and sonically varied, yet its emotions feel strangely stagnant.