Review Summary: “How perfectly God d@mn delightful it is” to experience this album when Sam Lemos is flying under so many radars. King Lear and the bible stands no chance against Sam Lemos’s ego spiral in Three Triptyches.
Three Triptychs is Sam Lemos’s third full length album. I’m so happy to drop an album review for a new album, just dropped a little over a week ago from writing this, on 4/14/26. This album is a fantastic concept album about Lemos psychoanalyzing himself in three parts, using a format of threes (hence, Triptych) to compare himself to King Lear. TL;DR of King Lear is he splits his kingdom into three parts, for each of his children. Their portion is determined by how much they please him according to their gifts. One daughter, Cordelia, pronounces her love for him as a daughter as her gift. Lear spurns Cordelia and splits the kingdom between the two other children. In fighting, betrayal destroys the kingdoms and Cordelia is hung for trying to save her father. Lear loses his mind and everyone dies. Like, hardly anyone involved lives to tell the tale. This ain’t no Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet, but one of Shakespeare’s most harrowing tragedies. Let’s dive into the album background and if it works to my ear!
Sam Lemos is from Las Vegas and is a multi instrument recording artist. If anyone knows anything about the music industry in Vegas, it’s actually pretty tough! There’s not live music playing at many bars like other cities, DJ’s have to play popular tracks, and the common stadium venue is conscientiously not booking small musicians. This makes me appreciate his commitment to the craft even more. Sam Lemos released this concept album in three parts, but I am reviewing the complete collection. .
This album opens up bright on the first part, individually called The Selfing, about ego. The opening act really pulls listeners in, kind of like Sam Lemos showing you what he can compose all by himself. The melodies are genre bending and I really enjoy the harmony to Lemos’s voice in “Ashen,” and leading into “Prince in Exile”. Lemos is grandiose and we can see the surface of who he is and the way his thought process works. By the time the harder rock ballad “The Serpent’s Egg” plays, cracks are starting to make themselves very apparent, as all ego trips eventually end.
Part II of this album is The Book of Samuel. We can definitely infer this portion is about the bare Sam Lemos, as his six pack parades on the album cover. “Wax Dim” is the opening track, but it’s my favorite from The Book of Samuel. I really revel in the dark spiral and he experiences and the beat in this song. It seems to me “Psalm 515” is one of the most listened to tracks on this album. I like this track and how it moves the concept, but definitely the most radio and pop-y of the entire album to my ears. “The Serpent and the Sorceress” is the third song, which is where any of the theatrical pop textures I love fall away. It’s good! I think a lot of Sput listeners would like this acoustic ballad mood more than I. It moves the story along perfectly. We transition from the inside Sam to how he has outwardly impacted those around him.
The final act of this album is The Pagan, the Cynic, and Saint. We are in the trenches of Sam Lemos’ persona and outward impact on others. “Lear’s Last Waltz” is a blues track about reconciliation and recognizing how he has wronged his Cordelia’s. This leads into the electronic and theatrical track, “Passacaglia Crumb” and I love the drama!: “How perfectly God d@mn delightful…” Sam sings as we picture him kinda walking towards off stage but not before his final soliloquy “La Siciliana di Paolo secondo Luca.” This song reminds me of something by The Reign of Kindo. It is a beautiful piano melody, wrapping us up on a bright note now that the tragedy is over.
There are moments of listening to Three Triptychs that I find myself asking, am I listening to some gospel right now??? But I swear, it’s worth powering through for the sake of the story and concept! Due to us getting so deep into the psyche, it’s expected we have to talk about God and gospel a little bit, but it’s used as format versus actually preaching. Samuel also being a bible name and being named for this figure would impact anyone’s perception of themselves. Sam Lemos uses the church-y tempo and sounds to confess and express his innermost thoughts. This becomes more prevalent as the story winds down towards the end of the 9 track full album.
I'm giving Three Triptychs a 3.5. It's an amazing, ambitious work! To me, it's like a movie. The individual tracks I could add to my daily playlist are “Ashen,” “Prince in Exile,” “Wax Dim,” and maybe even “Passacaglia Crumb”. I have not added them to my daily playlist. Instead, I downloaded the album and sit with the whole thing from start to finish, letting the dissolution of identity wash over me. I would say the experiment is a success. I’d love for introspective ears to let me know if you agree!!!
