Lazer Beam - Lost In Oblivion

Lost In Oblivion is the outstanding sophomore release from Locust French, released under the name Lazer Beam.  If you are familiar with the amalgamation of desert rock, grunge and pop from his self-titled debut and are expecting more of the same here, you are in for quite a surprise. While those elements can definitely be found throughout the new album they are just the beginning.  First off there are the songs themselves.  French is an outstanding songwriter and if you strip most of these songs down to the basics you would still be left with some insanely infectious pop tunes.  He proves this right out the gate with album opener “Sorry For The Headache”, a massively catchy dreampop song with a light stoner rock undercurrent and gentle electronic effects and beats. It will definitely have you swaying your head back and forth, and in a perfect world would be blasting out of speakers everywhere.  The electronics driven dreampop vibe continues on the title track, but this time around he moves in a slightly heavier direction.  The hooks are still in full-force with “Skate On By”, a nostalgic track that moves in a bit of a melancholic indie pop direction but is given his own refreshing unique spin.  “Dandelion Wishes And The Knight Of Wands” is a hypnotic, slow, doom-like soundscape that really showcases French’s guitar work.  Hearkening back to his debut, “Lower Your Guns” is a more straight-ahead stoner rock / desert rock track.  Meshing slow, downtuned guitar with upbeat pop hooks, “I Really Want U Slowly” brings to mind the Stoner Rock sounds of Queens Of The Stone Age.  “Vultures” is a very powerful song full of great guitar work and layers of sound.  It is a slow building cut that builds and builds getting more and more intense as it goes.  Featuring the distinct, dark and very deep guest vocals of Patrón, which complement the song perfectly, “Derelict” is a slow and dark, haunting, yet very captivating cut.  Shifting direction one final time, the album closes with a gorgeous, subtle electronic music enhanced, dark acoustic guitar driven folk-ish cover of the Devil Makes Three track “The Graveyard.”  This is an outstanding release that definitely deserves to be heard.  

(Lazer Beam - Facebook)