“Leave It”
In recent years, few Ann Arbor bands have played a larger role in redefining the sound of indie music than the band The Left Lanes. Competing with names such as Vulfpeck and The Stellars, creating unique music for their listeners is a task none short of impressive. In the fall of 2017, the band set the parameters of their specific style of indie music with songs such as Colors and Stay; and while their newest release sounds more like a standardized piece of media that you would hear on the radio, they have managed to keep the unique feel of The Left Lanes sound throughout their piece.
On their first album Leave It, they are an everyman charmer, expanding their palette as an indie music jack of all trades. Containing music of all styles, such as fast-paced and upbeat songs like Blue Skies, to more slow and emotional songs like Drifting Away, this album offers something for nearly every emotional mindset. It is through the variations in styles that the album succeeds as it lays the groundwork for a story that allows the listener to fill in the details with the experiences and situations of their own lives.
While many of the songs on the album feature upbeat emotions, one of the most emotional and affecting songs finds the band reflecting on the reality of moving away from things and people in their lives. Chalk it up to each member of the band having gone on an emotional journey of self-discovery this past year, or as they look towards their future, but Drifting Away is a masterful reflection upon the emotional tribulation of leaving something behind as you age and develop your personality.
While the practice of listening to an album completely through, in the order that the band intended for the listener to absorb the music in, has fallen out of common practice in recent years — with streaming platforms such as Spotify and Soundcloud allowing for the listeners to jump around an album — Leave It creates such a unique audio experience for the listener that the first time the album is listened to, should be listened to according to the track list. There are surprisingly few missteps in this group’s ten-song collection, an album that hammers home one of the groups fundamental descriptors as a band that works to create an acoustic journey for their audience.
Coming in at a little over 35 minutes, Leave It is available everywhere on Friday, June 7, 2019.
Track List:
Heavens
Too Much (No More)
Spinning
Blue Skies
Forever
Millennial Architect
Angsty
Autumn
Drifting Away
Leave It
Atticus Dewey is a senior at Community High School and is more than excited to start his fourth year on The Communicator staff. This year, he is one of the four Print Editors-in-Chief, but believes that the entirety of the staff is more skilled than any other year prior.
His life outside of journalism is completely absorbed by one thing: water polo. While Atticus doesn't have any free-time because of it, he wouldn't have it any other way. While Atticus has felt stressed and like time has been flying by, he's grateful that he has three other wonderful editors to help him through the process.
