{"id":5946,"date":"2020-10-19T23:30:47","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T23:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/?p=5946"},"modified":"2020-10-29T17:20:15","modified_gmt":"2020-10-29T17:20:15","slug":"lewis-del-mar-speaks-of-tragedy-through-upbeat-sound-on-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/2020\/10\/19\/lewis-del-mar-speaks-of-tragedy-through-upbeat-sound-on-august\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Del Mar Speaks of Tragedy through Upbeat Sound on ‘August’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Years ago, I had the privilege of seeing Young the Giant live, for whom Lewis Del Mar was opening. Though I know I should, most of the time I never look up the openers to any band I am going to see, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019m the only one. Lewis Del Mar\u2019s opening performance sold themselves to me, so much so that I saw them in concert months later in their headlining tour. The duo consisting of Danny Miller (singer and guitarist) and Max Harwood (drummer and producer) lit up the stage with their presence. I felt like I had been enchanted by their performance; the spell they casted had my body moving to the music. But after that tour, Lewis Del Mar just kind of\u2026 disappeared without a trace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After four years, Lewis Del Mar released their second album, August, on August 21. I spent a long time digesting this album before I felt like I would even be ready to write a review\u2014and I think that statement is very telling of the substance and meat within the record. Their previous self-titled album felt lighter, with an experimental, alternative, reggae-inspired sound that suggested to the listener that it was time to dance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lyrics in August, however, are riddled with themes of death, depression, and addiction with allusions to religious figures like the archangel, Gabriel. If you\u2019re not religious, do not take the biblical imagery as \u201creasons-to-not-listen-to-the-album\u201d; the imagery is lyrically woven as a second read (or listen). The album follows a linear story of ceaseless wreckage: drugs, cheating, depression, tripping, death, relapse, hope for change, and repeat. It is like reading through a locked diary, describing a life that many live, and many of us do not know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve seen music and movie stars in the media who have dealt with addiction, and unfortunately it has taken the lives of people such as Amy Winehouse, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Cory Monteith, Mac Miller<\/a>, and the list goes on. The celebrity fast-life brings any and all human vices along with it. It\u2019s easy access when you have the money, and I\u2019m sure the stress of the job does not help. But how is someone in the process of rising fame supposed to deter all that comes with it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n August\u2019s \u201cPrologue\u201d describes the life of an addict: memory loss and bad altercations, exemplified by lines like, \u201cBut Lord knows got holes in my memory \/ Ketamine don\u2019t help that neither \/ Got rolled up by \/ Claiming they seen us on their streets.\u201d Though ketamine (and a variety of other drugs) have brought them happiness in the past, the negative effects have begun outweighing the positive, and it feels like they cannot escape the situation they are in. It is wanting the best of both worlds at its finest, having the \u201ctension release\u201d while still being present in life without the altercations and bad habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of the songs, such as \u201cFever (CH. I),\u201d \u201cThe Ceiling,\u201d \u201cShutter,\u201d and \u201cTV\u201d have more of an upbeat rhythm and tone, using the pop-reggae sound described earlier; it\u2019s the \u201cponies and rainbows\u201d effect, as my mother described Ed Sheeran\u2019s earlier discography.Her description of \u201cponies and rainbows\u201d refers to the ubeat sound of the music making the harsh topics such as addiction to drugs and alcohol feel glorified while the lyrics tell a completely opposite story of pain and heartbreak. Lewis Del Mar describes their experience as \u201cDestructive in a pattern\u2026 \/ Summer of out sweet decline,\u201d as if the repetitive destruction is a fever dream, contrasting the ideals of the glorification of the rock star lifestyle by auditory tone and the lyrical honesty of<\/p>\n\n\n\n their own experiences: \u201cWe want half the advance \/ In one dollar bills \/ In the city of the night \/ Where the joy can kill \/ Will the steel outlive me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other tracks like \u201cRosalie (CH. II)\u201d and \u201cSewers\u201d speak to death and mourning. \u201cRosalie (CH. II)\u201d describes the moment Danny and\/or Max witnessed a mother crying on the street after losing her son (presumably a fentanyl\/heroin overdose) on the fourth of July while they were partying, \u201cI was dancing alive \/ Dilating the eye\u2026 Ooh, I saw you wailing \/ Like that was me (That boy, that boy ah-ha-ha).\u201d While celebrating and using drugs, they are witnessing the harm that hard-drug usage has done to their direct community, their neighbors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s an epidemic that has become increasingly covered by the media since more and more celebrities have passed away from the abuse of fentanyl-laced substances, though it has been going on since way before 2008 (exemplified by the passing of Heath Ledger<\/a>). Danny identifies with this communal pain, \u201cYou are my mother, my father, my brother,\u201d and the boy that has passed away. \u201cThat\u2019s Gabriel beneath, the white sheet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n