The new single from Lunar Tantrum, "Lost in the Valley of Sleep," dares to slow down and pull you into the mist. The Swedish/Australian rock collective, which has been active since 1991, returns with a sound that is both vintage and timeless, a dreamy melancholy threaded through a quiet storm of layered guitars and introspective lyricism.
The song washes over you from the first strains like dusk falling over a still lake. Richard Reynolds' vocals are hushed but just as haunted, and he leads you through a soundscape that falls somewhere between intimate and widescreen. There are obvious strains of '60s psychedelia here, but also a dark underbelly of '70s hard rock and the poetic ache of folk. And this is preservation, continuity, and transformation.
Christer Lindbladh's drumming is subdued but never absent, providing a pulse, a distant heartbeat beneath the valley in the title. Peter Clarin's lead guitar curls with verbal patience, never flashy but constantly processing. The bass of Torbjörn Antonsson hums low and steady, anchoring the dream in a slow-motion rhythm that seems like a lullaby for grownups who have weathered a few storms.
There's a real sense of moving lost both in the song and its situation. You get the feeling that this valley is not just a place but a headspace. That the band can suggest such terrain through sound is a testament to all the chemistry and craft that they've been sharpened. "Lost in the Valley of Sleep" just seeps in. It finds you right when you want to when you're ready to, sitting still for just a moment when you can steal a few minutes to get lost to find something real again. In a sense, it feels like a passive-aggressive stand against all things disposable in modern music culture.
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