Local Review: Mother Lights – Night Magic

Mother Lights
Night Magic

Self-Released
Street: 07.18
Mother Lights = The Lemonheads + Jeff Tweedy

Mother Lights come at you as a pleasant-sounding indie band out of Ogden, Utah. The band consists of Jake Rogers (guitarist/vocalist), Brent Sorenson (keyboards), Jake Dollen (bass) and Joey Lucius (drums). Mother Lights’ sound is an easy slow ride on the sliding scale of sunshine and rain, balancing out all the rest in between. They write interesting, unique love songs with a quiet, offbeat intensity that quickly hooked me and reeled me in. “Don’t worry baby / I’m going where there is no depression / I know the conversations,” Rogers sings on “Tip Of My Tongue,” “All you hear is a vow of silence / A little crack in the pavement / A little wilderness inside.”

Mother Lights’ new record, Night Magic, has similar lyrical treats littered all over the album. “In the city of lights, I’m going out / Is there any life at all / In a life I don’t know anything about,“ Rogers laments on the track “City Of Lights.” “I’m living in Los Angeles / Where all the freaks and outsiders fit in.” This is a great song about living with loneliness in a city that doesn’t care. I really love the shadowy subtleties of this record and all its wonderful and complex stories. All the characters that inhabit songs like “Wrecking Ball,” “Reservoir” and “Time Is Elastic” exist in a world of discovery and acceptance. Mother Lights write about characters that ride out world-ending tidal waves in a slow dance and a loving embrace. No room for ordinary on this record. The track “Siren Song” sums up the world of Night Magic the best—“If it’s not a roller coaster, it’s a losing streak.”

The instrumentation on Night Magic allows the perfect support for the powerful words that makes this quiet album loud and clear. Nothing gets in the way of the stories Mother Lights unleash. You feel every one of them. “When I feel your fingers / I feel the dark black night / When I’m next to you / Nothing felt so right,” Rogers sings on ‘“Ghosts.” “Sometimes, sweetheart, when you let me get so close / I’m in the middle of your graveyard / Everything is haunted by ghosts.” I highly recommend this record. It’s like settling in with a good book. Check it out on Mother Lights’ Bandcamp. –Russ Holsten

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Local Review: Mother Lights – Waiting for Mammoths
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