As someone who has spent an awful lot of his music appreciation time listening to punk, emo, metal, folk, and instrumental post rock, I don’t always care too much about a singer’s voice. I’m not bothered by voices like Bob Dylan, Geddy Lee, or Billy Corgan, and I’m largely indifferent to conventionally good singers.

But occasionally, there is a voice that reaches out from the cloud of instruments and grabs me by the lapels, demanding I give it the attention it deserves. For example, Jeff Buckley, the 90s alt rock crooner that transcended genre, gender, and era. Every once in a while, the Spirit of Jeff Buckley will rest on another artist like the Mantle of Elijah. Take for instance Thom Yorke’s performance on “Fake Plastic Trees” (coincidentally recorded the same night the band saw Buckley live).

Most recently though, it seems that Spirit has come to rest on Lukas Frank, the mastermind behind Storefront Church, whose voice weaves through the rich aural geography of As We Pass, the project’s debut full-length. Pianos dance pensively, baritone guitars fight their way out of maxed out spring reverb boxes, drums skitter nervously, strings rise and fall, and Frank’s voice leaps and soars and hovers in and out of the lush arrangements.

If I were to look for a single sentence comparison, I might say, “Jeff Buckley offers vocals for Emma Ruth Rundle’s arrangements of Radiohead songs from an alternate dimension.” But this album deserves more than that, and it’s not quite as derivative as that might seem. Yes, the comparisons can be made, but it’s reductive. As We Pass is a stark and striking work that sings loudly with its own voice.

“After the Alphabets” opens the record with a bang, starting with near whispering keyboards and guitars, slowly swelling to a cinematic climax complete with fuzz guitar and a choir. It’s a huge opener, but the rest of the album lives up to its promise. This is especially true of the alternate-timeline-Bond-theme “Total Stranger,” the punky, early-Radiohead rocker “Faction from Under the Grove,” and the huge orchestral ballad “The Gift,” which was featured in The Queen’s Gambit.

More experienced artists have struggled to make an album this sonically diverse but still cohesive, but Storefront Church has managed to pull it off. This is undoubtedly due to the experience already under his belt, which includes years of playing in bands around LA, a 2017 EP as Storefront Church, and a collaboration with indie sweetheart Phoebe Bridgers.

One thing is for sure though: if this is what he puts out as his debut album, y’all better pay close attention for where he’s going. 

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