Customer Reviews

Elm Street

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you heard the first Lanterna CD, this one's even better. Making use of loads of reverb on lingering electric and slide guitar tones to create a certain atmosphere, the Lanterna sound is ideal accompaniment for a drive down some lonely highway late at night. As with the first album, Elm Street is entirely made up of instrumentals. Most of them could be considered "rock," but it's rock like the slide guitar passages on Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game." The guitar there was by James Calvin Wilsey; here it's Lanterna leader Henry Frayne on the frets. It's a guitar sound that conjures up the soul of the night, not in a spooky way, but in portraying nighttime's quiet and empty spaces. Another comparison would be '60s surf-rock instrumentals, but slowed way down so the notes are allowed to expand. Some of the tracks on Elm Street border on the "ambient" style, especially the spectral 12-minute closing cut, "Dog Days."

Light guitar melodies repeated over a sparse rhythm section give these songs a light, nimble feel. But the chord changes and effects leaven this mood with a dose of melancholy. The earlier tracks on the album are the best, and track two is worth the price of the CD. Excellent background music for light reading, good conversation, or kicking back with the headphones.

3 1/2

Frayne is a pro at walking a fine line between spirited and lifeless gently-reverbed guitar instrumentals, and Elm Street is no exception. There is a bit of variety here, although forays into electronica feel more contrived than Lanterna's patented desert highway strumming. Still ES survives intact on the right side of a quality release.

I used the Amazon downloader for MP3s for the first time and am happy with how easy it was. Elm Street is gorgeous, the sound quality exceptional for the download as well. Smiles all round.

The first few tunes sound like backing tracks before the "vocals" were recorded. It gets better after that...but doesn't live up to the hype. The track "Dog Days" is very good though, but one track does not an album make.
Still enjoyable........but.....