The Longest Day of the Year
Carapace
Mulewax Music
4 out of 5 stars
The early days of The Longest Day of the Year focused fully on lead singer Sean Lambone’s gravelly, Tom Waits-ian voice. It was good, but it was the main thing that shone through on every song.
For the band’s sophomore release however, Lambone has learned to make his voice just one part of a much larger, and pretty brilliant picture. The rawness is still absolutely there, but the music behind that voice has been honed to work together with his powerful vocals — sort of like learning to drive a 500 horsepower car without always smoking the tires.
That’s not to say that Carapace doesn’t still have a bunch of grit to it. It most certainly does. Alt-country rockers like “Me & Jeroboam & The Moon” and “Let What’s In Out” are still rollicking anthems, but tracks like “Live Wire” “Last Gray Day” and the exquisite “Coffin” show a softer side of the band that has only been hinted at before.
It’d be an easy assumption that the recent addition of violinist Melissa McGinley has changed the sound, and she certainly has helped the group evolve. But it’d also be short-sighted to put it all on McGinley. The Longest Day of the Year has been playing for five years, and there’s a maturity on Carapace that could only come with that many years together.
The Longest Day of the Year - 'Carapace'
For the band’s sophomore release however, Lambone has learned to make his voice just one part of a much larger, and pretty brilliant picture. The rawness is still absolutely there, but the music behind that voice has been honed to work together with his powerful vocals — sort of like learning to drive a 500 horsepower car without always smoking the tires.