This EP was somewhat of a surprise for me. In my limited due diligence of Lost Orchards, I assumed this project of Ron Freeman (mastermind of the Listen to Friends blog) and friends would fall in line with the neo-folk scene of Columbus. This EP rocks though. The production and instrumentation is quite simply in a larger sounding rock genre than I expected. Well, if you’ve been reading IATU for any length of time you might surmise that surprising this editor is a good thing – usually. Don’t worry, for Lost Orchards it is a good thing.
So, if it isn’t neo-folk what exactly is the sound of Lost Orchards? Based on the four songs (well, technically five) on the Deaf Kids EP alone, it seems like the sort of indie rock that the NPR crowd would dig. Not so “indie” that outsiders would scoff at them being “hipster” (that’s a worn out term by now anyway). This music doesn’t contain mass appeal either, however. Lost Orchards plainly writes what they want to write, regardless of where it gets them, darn it! Creativity in song structure stands out most in “Map of Heaven,” with its diversity in percussion and sunny vocals that contrast with the more monotone but still in tune leads. “Crash Your Car” has a tasty lick in the intro that’s just intriguing enough to catch my interest. This is important – a friend once told me he had a rule that if he got through the first fifteen seconds of a song, he would finish it. “Heroin Skinny” is a straightforward folk tinged rock tune that works well plugged in or stripped down (the latter format creates the sort-of-fifth-song on the EP). I prefer the stripped down version with the female leads, personally (thank you, Savannah Freeman). “Rock n’Roll Saves Lives” admittedly isn’t the most memorable at first but a cool break roughly three minutes in redeems the song and solidifies the EP as being worth checking out.
Lost Orchards carry a vibe that is surprisingly muscular. The band is indie to the core, but craft a sound that will take up every inch of the small rooms they play.
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