Lanterns On The Lake - Gracious Tide, Take Me Home

Let's keep this going, shall we? Slightly more recently (the start of this month, to be precise), I celebrated payday with a visit to Avalanche, of course. I'd spotted this in the record section a week earlier, and had made a mental note to pick it up when I could. Fortunately, no-one got in there before me and here we are.

Ooh yes. This will do. A nice minimalist cover, and the gold lettering is a really good choice. It's almost like a hardback book cover, isn't it?

Fairly minimal back cover to match, and there is a RAD SHIP on this side too. Excellent. Part of me thought this release was on white vinyl, but apparently I was mistaken. The labels are pretty nice though, so that makes up for the lack of colour a bit. Also I am always appreciative of a free CD of an album, so that definitely puts Bella Union in my good books.

Lanterns are a delightfully sleepy band. They mix borderline-post rock with slightly breath-y vocals to make songs that I think are best appreciated on a rainy Sunday with a mug of tea. A pity today's quite dry then. This is their first full-length album, released in 2011 (way to keep up to date, Adam), and it's pretty good. In parts it drags ever-so-slightly, but that feeling tends not to last too long. The highlight of the album for me is probably the delicate Ships In The Rain, a mournful little song with the nicest lyrics. I think the band have the potential to be really good, and I'm interested to see what their next release is like. It must be coming soon, surely?