Lights (And A Slight Taste Of Death) [LP]

Naked Lunch - Lights (And A Slight Taste Of Death) [LP]

LP version. "I founded this band, and I'll bury it when I feel like it," Naked Lunch mastermind, songwriter, and singer Oliver Welter once said. Obviously, he hasn't felt like it yet. So it should come as no surprise that this band -- believed by many to be long gone -- is opening a new chapter in its eventful history, twelve years after their last critically acclaimed album All Is Fever (TR 243CD, 2013), with their new record Lights (And A Slight Taste Of Death). Following lineup changes and internal reshuffles, comes this outrageous record, on which, as seems to be the case with every Naked Lunch release, everything is once again at stake. The madness, the perspective, and the journey of songwriter and singer Oliver Welter go deep with these songs, far-reaching -- not least inward -- and from there, back out into the world. The almost fateful encounter with musician and producer Wolfgang Lehmann ("the best and most talented music interpreter ever," as Welter puts it) inspired Welter to finalize the arrangements and production of the various song drafts for Lights (And A Slight Taste Of Death) in Lehmann's studio -- with Lehmann also handling the final mix. All this, of course, was done with the support of longtime companions Alex Jezdinsky (drums) and Boris Hauf (keys/sax). Lights (And A Slight Taste Of Death) is a 14-track tour de force; demanding and harsh, yet tender and embracing. It's an intimate self-examination, spanning grand ballads like the hauntingly beautiful "Come Into My Arms or Love Don't Love Him Anymore," to sweeping, sky-storming pop anthems such as "To All And Everyone I Love, We Could Be Beautiful," or "Going Underground," and even includes completely unexpected expressive outbursts -- like a free-jazz saxophone solo in the drugged-out "If This Is The Last Song You Can Hear." Lights (And A Slight Taste Of Death) thus takes its rightful place as a consistent continuation in the tightly woven, high-quality discography of Naked Lunch.

Tracks

01. To All And Everyone I Love
02. Only Hollow
03. We Could Be Beautiful
04. Go Away
05. Bring On The Lights
06. All The Same
07. Blackbird
08. Come Into My Arms
09. Fuck My Senses
10. If This Is The Last Song You Can Hear
11. I Saw
12. Love Don't Love Him Anymore
13. As I Lay Down Dying
14. Going Underground