The Cosmic Selector Vol.1

By Lord Huron | Whispering Pines Studios

Well, this is a first. Quite literally. Welcome to the very first Riff Report, where I give all my opinions on albums, EPs and everything in between, all whilst running on the opinion that my views are gospel (they’re definitely not).

Lord Huron’s The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1 is an interesting album to review based on its… randomness. No two songs are too similar; there’s a distinct intentional variety to the way everything is laid out and presented, and I’ve lost count of how many genres it morphs into… and out of. But in a strange way, this makes sense. Having the dark, haunting bass riffs of ‘Who Laughs Last’ followed by the romantic, slow-dance style of ‘The Comedian’ comes together to create an immersive yet unpredictable style of listening that few groups could successfully put together. Yet Lord Huron can do it with striking ease.

The cosmic selector that’s referenced in the album nods to a jukebox on the album cover, a broken relic of the past. Assumably, due to its nature of being, well, broken, one would assume the album works in the same manner. A broken album, where the songs don’t seem to belong together. But this is exactly what makes it work so well, because after all, isn’t that us? Eight billion people sharing an earth, all different, all supposedly parts of different albums.

Delving deeper into the jukebox particularly, it represents choices users can make, connected to consequences that we don’t necessarily understand at the time of making them. The album took a lot of inspiration from ‘The Twilight Zone’, and is lined with a feeling of horror, dread, and is overall a darker album than what has come before. The album as a whole, though seeming disconnected in of itself, is very much connected to Lord Huron’s previous releases. All the way back to Lonesome Dreams back in 2012, where characters from a fictional novel series (written by George Ranger Johnson, who in turn was created by Ben Schneider the groups lead singer) are introduced, and their magical journeys and relationships are explored, through to 2015 and Strange Trails, where even more of an overarching story with even deeper subplots are seen, it’s clear Lord Huron are very well versed in storytelling through music.

But now for the final opinion, the reason that I hope you’re still reading. The disconnected nature of the album works surprisingly well. Incorporating a mass level of different genres is usually too bold a move to make on this scale, but again, it works. The dark core of the album creates a brooding listening experience, but enjoyable nonetheless. The story is far-fetched, I’m not as big a fan of mystical, fantastical journeys explained and explored via multiple album releases over the course of 13 years, but I can appreciate the enjoyment it brings for hundreds of thousands of others. Overall, I would recommend this album to anyone, particularly those who enjoy some whimsy mixed into their headphones.