Lucius: NUDES

Justin Jacobs on April 9, 2018


Let’s call Lucius’ new release, coyly titled NUDES, a welcome, if not crucial, addition to the catalog of this rapidly rising LA-via-Brooklyn folk act. Led by co-frontwomen Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, Lucius turned a whole army of heads with their hushed, lovely 2016 album Good Grief; their “Million Dollar Secret” placement in the 2017 season of the HBO hit Girls; and their shows with Roger Waters, which garnered even more attention. So you can’t blame this young band for wanting to capitalize on the momentum—and though it’s a bit early to release an odds-and-sods collection like NUDES, it doesn’t disappoint. The 10-track acoustic compilation includes three covers, three new tunes and four revisited Lucius songs—all run through the band’s richly-harmonized, gently strummed filter, roughly splitting the difference between the lullabies of Azure Ray and the roots-folk of Indigo Girls. Wilco’s Nels Cline quietly joins the band for the hearty, rerecorded “Million Dollar Secret,” but it’s Waters who makes his presence known on a cartoonishly grainy recording of the old-time classic “Goodnight Irene.” The collection hits its high point exactly at the middle with “Neighbors” and “Eventually.” The former is Lucius’ new single, a stormy folk march with a hell of a chorus, including the wailed lyrics, “Oh, I bet you can’t imagine how I’m sinking when the signal’s always busy” striking like a punch. The latter is a Tame Impala cover, and Lucius turns the psychedelic ballad into a mesmerizing campfire singalong.

Artist: Lucius
Album: NUDES
Label: MOM + POP MUSIC