It took the New York band Lucius a little while to get going, but in the last year or so, things have been picking up pretty quickly. Frontwomen Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe have been singing together for nigh on a decade. They met whilst they attending Boston’s Berklee College of Music, and bonded over a love soul music and Bowie. They began writing songs together. The pair moved to Brooklyn where they met the rest of the Lucius crew, drummer Dan Molad and guitarists Peter Lalish and Andrew Burri. The band issued their self-titled debut in 2012, and followed up in fall 2013 with their first full-length Wildewoman.
Which brings us to “Turn It Around,” one of the record’s standouts. It starts off with a “Leader of the Pack” girl-group stomp (complete with the obligatory handclaps providing the backbeat). There’s tenacity in Laessig and Wolfe’s very complimentary vocals, but when the chorus hits, the song opens up the tough outside to show us a more vulnerable interior. And the music tracks the tale the pair tell in the song quite well. Leassig and Wolfe’s protagonist is unconcerned with consequences, yet she suffers them time and time again. “She can’t be bothered by the mistakes she’s made/But she’s forgetting that’s what guides you to the rightful path,” they sing. In the chorus they compare it to looking through the wrong end of a telescope, a figurative and (almost) literal myopia. Lucius the band may’ve exercised a bit more caution, but we’re very glad they took the leap.
Stay tuned because Lucius’ll be in Studio 1A TODAY (Jan. 29) at 3 p.m., and they’ll be at the Parish TONIGHT.
