Lightspeed Champion Bye Bye EP (Domino)
2/5
By: Bethany Moran
When Dev Hynes emerged as a solo artist from his former indie-punk trio, Test Icicles, no one anticipated that his new vision would be as far removed from their thrashing, gnashing and choking as was humanly possible. Under the new image of Lightspeed Champion, Hynes fled from the style that characterised his early musical days, and reinvented his own whimsical, dreamy world awash with lavish strings and lush instrumentation.
With his latest EP, Bye Bye, Hynes seems to be intent on developing a more mature reflective style. Having acquired the assistance of renowned producer and composer, Van Dyke Parks (who famously worked alongside The Beach Boys, Byrds, and Joanna Newsom), Bye Bye is an EP rich with flourishing instrumental passages and vibrant melodies, perhaps most notably in ‘The Mess You’re In’.
Opening with a cover of The Beach Boys’ ‘‘Til I Die’, we find Hynes attempting to re-create the delicate textures and light-hearted sentiment of the original track. Alas, the end result is all very overblown and grandiose, and Hynes seems somewhat lost amongst the excessive, and at times rather hectic, instrumentation to the extent that his vocal lines are smothered beneath the weight of it all.
With the frenzied accompaniment of the accordion and ever-persistent interjections of the string section, ‘Bye Bye Icarus’ becomes an over-theatrical track that would not be out of place resounding in some bizarre backstreet French café.
Overlaboured and drawn out, the tracks have an awkward tendency to saunter along without developing any significant structures or melodies. Throughout the EP, Hynes works with the determination of someone desperate to prove his worth as a serious musician and composer, and perhaps of one who simultaneously realises that the benefits of going solo are fast diminishing.
Lightspeed Champion - Bye Bye EP by DominoRecordCo
Artists in this article: Lightspeed Champion
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