Artist: Lovelite
Album: Nearness
Rating: 4/5
Release Date: October 5th, 2010
Track Listing:
1. Apathy
2. Brevity
3. Ambition
4. Nearness
5. Invisible One
6. I Belong
7. Finally Free
8. Perihelion
Review:
Lovelite is an indie rock/worship four piece act from San Diego, CA that consists of: husband and wife Andrew and Jen Polfer (vocals/guitars/keys), Adam Taylor (guitarist/keys) and Brandon Burr (bass). After nearly two years since releasing their first full length album,
All Color on www.comeandlive.com, the band that brought us songs like “There You Are”, “Honestly” and “Our Peace” brings us their newest and most astounding project to date,
Nearness.The album starts off with “Apathy”, a great opening song that gives you a good idea of what to expect from the rest of the album. It’s not quite as remarkable as “There You Are” which opened All Color, nonetheless, musically and lyrically it’s still a solid track and one of my personal favorites. The title track co-written by producer Tyler Chester. Although it’s under three minutes it is no doubt one of the most memorable songs on the whole album. Jen Polfer’s soft and sweet voice mesh beautifully with the songs heart warming music and simple lyrics, “Give me a nearness/I want to feel fire/Your friendship is tireless/Give me a nearness…”
The soft and intimate “I Belong” doesn’t offer quite as much musically, even so, the song grabs you with its honest and heartfelt lyrics. It’s a song that speaks of full surrender, full surrender to God. Sure, that’s nothing we haven’t heard before, but it’s the sincerity and heart in Andrew’s voice that make the song quite remarkable. The album closes beautifully with “Perihelion” (meaning: the point nearest the sun in the orbit of a planet or other celestial body), a one and a half minute “Nearness” reprise. With drawing musical comparisons to Athlete, Death Cab for Cutie, Keane, Radiohead and Eisley, plus with Andrew Polfer on vocals, these are perhaps my favorite tracks on the whole album; the instrumentation is simple, yet superb.
Compared to the band’s previous album
All Color, sadly, there’s a lot less of Jen getting time behind the mic. While she compliments Andrew beautifully in the background, I would have liked to have heard more of her. At some points Nearness feels a bit darker sonically than All Color, but in a very good way, it brings the album a more intimate and emotional feel. Probably the biggest issue with the album is length. Call me greedy, but thirty-three minutes and eight tracks just isn’t enough! When I first got word the band was releasing a new album, I was absolutely thrilled! After a great album like
All Color you can imagine how high my expectations were. I’m very pleased to say that the band exceeded all of my expectations.
Closing ThoughtsOverall; this is another solid release from Lovelite and I enjoyed the album a great deal. The music and lyrics flow beautifully because Andrew and Jen sound absolutely wonderful together. Musically this album is a breath of fresh air. It’s unique and refreshing, how often do you hear an organ and a Glockenspiel nowadays? I’d love to see the band go Instrumental for one release; it could be interesting, and no doubt amazing.
