Reviews

I woke up this morning in a cold sweat.  Last night I experienced some of the most terrifying nightmares in my life.  I was totally bummed out, and felt like shit.  What do we have to listen to today?  LN, I say to myself "what the fuck is an LN?", and "I hope this doesn't suck". I pop in the cd and for the next 46 minutes I'm taken through a music euphoria that I haven't experienced since I first heard The Red Stars Theory.  How can music make me feel so good? After the first 15 minutes or so, I'm totally hooked, and I have to find out every scrap of information about this band or I will surely die.
 
LN is primarily Gary Murray who is from my home state of Ohio.  Gary has been releasing music through the indie label Velvet Blue Music for about the last seven years.  Seven years, seven albums, not a bad track record. I also find out that Dirt Floor Hotel Part 2 is the final effort of LN which makes me a little sad that I'll never be able to see this guy live unless I become his best friend and make him play in my living room.  What I love most about this band is how extremely secretive they are with their image. No pictures of the bands, no website.  So underground it hurts, but then you are immediately soothed by these somewhat simplistic melodies and awe inspiring beautiful lyrics.
 
Honestly, I was a little shaky with this albums first track "Without Your Song" the vocals bothered the hell out of me, after I got past that though it was smooth sailing from then on.  LN reminds me of early Red House Painters, which is a good thing, as Red House Painters are one of my all time favorites.  Very low key sound, acoustic guitar layered upon acoustic guitar, a tad of shoegazer dreaminess, smooth simplistic vocal melodies, and you get a sense of darkness throughout the record.  By darkness I don't mean sadness, or being goth, no a Nick Cave darkness, A darkness that makes you feel absolutely at home and makes you realize it's the most amazing feeling in the world.
 
My favorite track on this album is by far "It Don't Matter If You Bleed". It talks about Jesus Christ basically, "and it don't matter if you bleed like him, it only matters if you love".  I'm not a Christian by any means, but for some reason this song just choked me up on the first listen.  This very powerful storytelling of the crucifixion of Jesus was by far better than the Passion of the Christ, and about 1 hour and 55 minutes shorter.  "Kisses" is another great track that is much different from the rest.  The song starts of with an Avalanches comparable dancy drum beat that continues throughout the song.  Add some random ambient sounds in the background and some of the smoothest vocals ever and you've summed up "Kisses".
 
It's sad to think that this is LN's last effort in the music world, but they do have six other albums you can catch up on if you don't know them already. I am officially a fan of this music, and it will be in my music collection for the rest of my life.  Any fans of Red House Painters, Nick Drake, Nick Cave, Clem Snide, or any folky-indie rock should defiantly look into LN, it's completely worth the time, effort, and cash.  Scouts honor.-