After the 'Kid Forest' trilogy courtesy of 'Teddy and the Love Gang', we head over to Denmark for another unusual approach to songwriting - but one that I like very much as it combines music with the art of the comic strip. The project name is 'Oh Lois', and the music is interesting and inventive too, so it's quite easy to listen purely based on the album.
Behind 'Oh Lois' is the songwriter Søren Manscher, previously singer of the band 'Harmonics', and sitting alongside the music is the comic strip 'The Red Sun', which features 'Lois' an out of work reporter alongside 2 other characters, with 'Man' being a retired superhero (I love the idea of a retired superhero) and 'Henry', an 11 year old boy living with his grandmother.
I've been listening to the whole album, and it's an interesting mix of clever quirky melodies, complex beats which switch the direction of the music in a heartbeat, synths and occasional wailing guitars. It has a complexity which definitely wants me to go back and listen again, but at the same time it is not inaccessible either - especially tracks such as 'Lesson Learned' which is the track we're focussing on today.
'Lesson Learned' is a really fascinating track which opens with violins, and then the dreamy and delicate vocals (with a hint of the unearthly) are introduced, but I love the way the music develops into a lovely melody with lyrics setting out the theme of the comic - 'The Red Sun' which has suddenly appeared in the sky. I like the varied musical influences in the latter stages of the track, and the whole thing is a complex web of sounds and ideas.
This is 'Lesson Learned':
The album 'Oh Lois' was released last Sunday, and we're also looking forward to a release by Søren Manscher as a solo project - his EP should be out in October.