Lord Huron – The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1

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Lord Huron, the project of LA-based singer-songwriter, and visual artist, Ben Schneider, has released his fifth album that was written and co-produced by Schneider. Rounding out Lord Huron’s band are musicians Tom Renaud, Mark Barry and Miguel Briseño, and there is also two cameos to be found on The Cosmic Selector from actress Kristen Stewart (on “Who Laughs Last”) and Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino (on “Fire Eternal”). Lord Huron gets into a comfortable groove on this 12-track LP that seems like the logical follow-up from the band’s excellent 2018 record of Vide Noir, paired with the crisp songwriting that was most recently found all over the 2021 effort called Long Lost. One of the key tracks that helps set the tone for the entirety of the record is found on “Nothing I Need” as Schneider croons, “I feel in deep when you fell in love with me / Now I got everything I want, and I got nothing that I need / If I believe, will you fall back in love with me? / Now I got everything I want, and I got nothing that I need.” These lyrics act as a mantra for Lord Huron as he once again explores the cosmos on The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1, an album that is rich with the themes of love, loneliness, and finding out the meaning of this thing we call life.

”Looking Back” opens the album on a somber note as Ben Schneider ponders his past footsteps with some bellowing vocals, stripped back guitars, and some atmospheric elements to bring the listener back to 2018’s Vide Noir’s vibes. “Bag of Bones” expands upon the ideas Lord Huron have tinkered with since the early days of Lonesome Dreams and the band’s 2015 breakthrough of Strange Trails, that recently celebrated a tenth anniversary. It’s on “Bag of Bones” where Schneider ponders his own mortality as he admits, “This is how my story ends, I’m stoned and broke and drunk again / No one laughs in nothing’s face, I’m just floating on through my aimless days / Been a long road, but I’ll be alright, I’m living on the countryside / I’ll be out there on my own, just a rattling bag of bones.” The depth that Schneider goes into in his lyrics showcases his remarkable growth as not only a musician, but a true artist as well.

The aforementioned “Nothing I Need” follows nicely in the sequencing with a cool pick-me-up banjo-laced mid-tempo track that is soaked in indie-folk lore, while the band rallies around Schneider’s every lyric. The song accelerates to the finish line in the bridge of, “I threw away my life on a goddamn road / But I see her face everywhere I go,” before an electric guitar solo is added into the mix. “Is There Anybody Out There” finds Schneider at a low point, personally, in his exploration for connection in this world, and the song does a good job of describing the feelings of loneliness and a love lost.

”Who Laughs Last” brings the tempo up once again with a cool bass line from Miguel Briseño as actress Kristen Stewart adds in some spoken word lyrics to fill the void. It’s a cool type of song that breaks up some of similar-sounding songs that I found limited the reach of Long Lost, while Schneider adds his voice towards the end of the song with the explosive statement of, “I’m gonna leave that city far behind and get a long, long way from there / I got a burning feeling deep inside of me and don’t know where to put it / Now that I left that place, I feel like someone for the first time in my life / You don’t remember what I said, but you’ll remember what I did.” That last line in particular really struck me as a music fan, and the lasting legacy that all musicians strive for in their artistic careers.

”The Comedian” gets back to the mid-tempo, jazz bar vibes, but it didn’t do much for me, personally, in the album sequencing. “Watch Me Go”, on the other hand, is a great indie folk song that has a certain “twang” to the guitars that fans of Zach Bryan and more recently, Post Malone, would really dig. “Fire Eternal” is the other song featuring a guest vocalist in Kazu Makino, and her pairing with Schneider’s trademark croon makes for some great, complementing sounds in the harmonies. “It All Comes Back” is a ballad composed largely on the piano, while the orchestral parts that back the song are utterly powerful.

The record continues to gracefully pace itself to the finish line with the steady guitar groove found on “Used To Know,” that features a great performance on the drum kit by Mark Barry. The lyrics of, “Grab your cigarettes, get a move on, we gotta go / Before they turn the lights down low / Dark silhouettes of a future you tried to forget / Everything you told me,” struck a chord with me, and further highlighted Schneider’s knack for writing a slick bridge to round out his hooks found in each memorable chorus. “Digging Up The Past” again finds Lord Huron looking at how far they’ve come as Schneider closes with, “Digging up the past / And dreaming of what might have been,” over some harmonica and somber guitars. “Life is Strange” closes out The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1 on the right note, with some nice guitar tones, great production from Schneider, and some thoughtful lyrics like, “Let’s drink, here’s to us, take a cup, go on, fill it up / But you said you really don’t drink anymore / Well, do what you must, in the end, we all turn to dust / And I’ll stay forever right here if you want me to.” The “journeyman” that lives deep inside the core of the band, Lord Huron, is prevalent throughout this record that is comforting, as it is warm, and helps us remember the all too important theme of establishing those human connections.

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