Sydney/Melbourne dream-pop quartet LUCIDBLOOM return this week with their second EP, COEXIST, and we’re premiering it in full ahead of its release this Friday via ASCENT Music.
The EP was written and produced entirely by the band, with sessions taking place in drummer Astrid Holz’s converted-truck studio and guitarist Tom Haeusler’s home studio, before being mixed by James Christowski.
The four tracks came out of a period of serious personal loss, and they don’t try to tie that up neatly. Instead, COEXIST lets grief, love, anger and hope sit next to each other without settling into a single mood. “Things hurt because we love,” the band explain. “But nothing really prepares you for the scale of life-changing loss, or the strange reality of having to carry on around it. Nobody knows how to navigate it perfectly. We’re all just grappling with what it means to be human.”
The title track opens the EP and sets the tone. A driving rhythm pushes things along while beautifully layered harmonies drift over the top, sounding celestial even as they rub up against darker, atmospheric undercurrents. Under the lift of the chorus there’s real frustration at having to keep up appearances when nothing feels normal: “feeling two halves in the same mind”.
The rest of the EP stays in that territory and comes at it from different angles. “Dust” works towards letting go and the clarity that can come with it. “Aftermath” captures the white-out shock of fresh loss, asteroid imagery and all, built around the plea “hold me in the aftermath”. Recent single “Fever Dream” closes things out in a warmer, technicolour blur of memory and longing.
Sisters Jennifer and Katrina Noorbergen write the lyrics together, and their visual, image-led style suits the material. They give you the pictures and leave the meaning for you to work out. This is one to light the candles for. Turn the lights off, grab yourself a drink and sink into the tangled beauty of love and loss, and all the feels that run through COEXIST.
LUCIDBLOOM launch the EP at The Mitch in Alexandria on Thursday 20 November. Do get along if you can and support live music.
COEXIST is out Friday 13 November via ASCENT Music. Be-sure to pre-save the EP HERE
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Header image credit: Bee Elton
