Review Summary: Continuity and change
I’ve always admired artists who manage to transition from one distinct style to another, and do both well. From Indian Lakes is a trademark example - the project’s early work (a la 2009’s
The Man With Wooden Legs) was definable as emo/post-hardcore, but by few releases later (like 2014’s
Absent Sounds) the music was more in line with dream pop. My personal preference is for the latter era, with
Absent Sounds as a borderline classic and its follow-up, 2016’s
Everything Feels Better Now, with its wintry sense of gloom, not far behind, but there haven’t been any bad releases throughout the discography.
It’s now been five years since the last From Indian Lakes album. 2019’s
Dimly Lit is an enjoyable listen, but to this reviewer’s ears marks a (relatively) weak point in the canon, with the dreamy era growing a tad stale, while the tracklist feels overstuffed (even if most of the tunes are fairly short). In the half-decade since
Dimly Lit’s release, From Indian Lakes mastermind Joey Vannucchi has still been engaged in music-making, but concentrating primarily on his Joe Vann project, a more stripped-back affair which was particularly suitable during the pandemic and its aftermath. Now, with
Head Void, Vannucchi’s more famous vehicle is back, and its creator identifies his latest effort as a reversion away from the gentler singer-songwriter tendencies exemplified by Joe Vann. Indeed, he cites the punk and hardcore scenes of his younger days as key influences upon his intent to make a “louder” record this time around.
In truth, I don’t hear many traces of either punk or hardcore on
Head Void, but there’s little denying that, for large swaths of the runtime, this album is a more aggressive effort than usual. Particularly in the record’s first half, the effervescent and easy-going dream pop which has been From Indian Lakes’ bread-and-butter for a while now is traded in for a more crunching shoegaze/alt-rock sound more associated with bands like Gleemer or even Nothing (perhaps not coincidentally, Will Yip does get a mastering credit here). In the album’s second half, though, the predominant sound mellows significantly and feels much closer to From Indian Lakes’ previous three album run.
As a whole,
Head Void can be a rather frustrating listen - there’s a lot of brilliant elements, but only a few songs which I’d characterize as fully successful. Particular strengths include the guitar tone, which is often godly, and the aforementioned shift towards a heavier sound in the album’s first half, which feels like a due change of pace for the project. The best tracks, too, manage to strike gold in different ways - “The Wilderness” as perhaps the most complete display of the record’s aspiration for a more hard-rockin’ sound, “I Lay Different” as a vigorous number propelled along by anxious energy, and “Keep Me” as a marvelously immersive closer. Other tracks are mostly good-to-great as well (although the chorus in “The Lines” is actively irritating), but don’t get a ringing endorsement for various reasons - “Water”, for example, is quite beautiful but feels oddly hamstrung between being an intro and a full-blown song, while several of the second half tracks, like “Spilling Over” and “Shrine” aren’t particularly memorable on their own merits.
In the end, I’d characterize
Head Void as a mild disappointment in its role as From Indian Lakes’ long-awaited return. It’s an album with a lot of great songs, and it does marginally improve on
Dimly Lit, particularly by trimming the fat for a more taut listening experience. But, there are two major problems. First, while From Indian Lakes seems well-suited for the heavier gaze sound implemented here, but the material itself in that vein isn’t particularly striking in quality. Second, that very direction doesn’t feel like it was fully committed to - the album’s second half is generally a slide back towards the comfort zone of more soothing dream pop which has reliably populated previous From Indian Lakes albums. While the resulting sonic diversity is appreciated,
Head Void is a short enough album that greater homogeneity would be unlikely to hurt, and would’ve instead added up to a more coherent identity for the release. Taken together, these gripes suggest that
Head Void may well end up being a transitional release from From Indian Lakes, as the album seems a little stranded between continuity and change. All in all, it’s good to have the project back, and this latest effort will probably please existing fans, even if it’s unlikely to rank as a crowning achievement.
