There's a particular kind of album title that tells you everything before you've heard a single note. Lick The Spoon, Let It Soften is one of them — unhurried, tactile, asking you to slow down whether you like it or not.
Lamplight, the project led by Brooklyn/Roanoke musician Ian Williams, made a quiet impression with their self-titled debut last year, recorded with Lightning Bug's Kevin Copeland and put out by Western Vinyl. Now they're back with a second LP, and if the lead single is anything to go by, they've lost none of that easy, aching quality that made the first record worth your time.
What "Clover" Actually Does
The song landing today is "Clover," the second track on the new record and the one responsible for the album's title. The premise is deceptively simple: Williams asks after someone's yard, mentions rain-soaked shirts, tells whoever he's addressing to call him when they catch their breath. Three images, and somehow they carry the whole weight of a relationship that's either ending or already gone.
Lamplight describe this as creek-steeped folk, and that's about right — the sound is drowsy but it moves, a little twangy, a little twee, rooted in moody textures that give Williams' worn-in vocals somewhere to settle. It's not the kind of track that grabs you by the collar. It's the kind that you realise has been sitting with you for two days without asking permission.
The band are releasing it alongside an alternative version, "Clover (Slow)," which suggests there was enough recorded material in these sessions to make real choices about what shape the song should take. That's a good sign. Albums built from abundance tend to feel different from ones padded to fill a tracklist.
On the song itself, Lamplight have said it introduces "a transformed understanding of love" that runs through the whole record — framing it as being about grief, but also about presence. About letting something sit rather than rushing to swallow it. Which, yes, explains the title rather neatly.
Thirteen Tracks, One Direction
Lick The Spoon, Let It Soften lands on 23 October via Western Vinyl, and it's a proper full-length — thirteen tracks, running from opener "Promise To Myself" through to closer "Ring Stains." Titles like "Meadow 'gain," "Portal To August," and "Soft Spots" suggest the mood stays consistent. [The Spook School's recent return](/getohedz/music/the-spook-school-reunite-for-new-album-like-a-heartbeat) showed what a band can do when they come back with something to say rather than just something to sell — it'll be interesting to see if Lamplight are building in a similar direction.
This is a band who seem genuinely uninterested in making noise for its own sake, which in the current climate is either a limitation or a strength depending on your patience. We'd argue it's a strength. There's no shortage of indie-folk that sounds busy without going anywhere. Lamplight go somewhere.
The verdict: "Clover" is a measured, melancholy piece of work that earns its runtime without overstating anything. If Lick The Spoon, Let It Soften delivers thirteen tracks at this level, October is already looking like a better month for music than most of the summer combined.