Spook The Herd, Lanterns On The Lake, LP

It's strange - not to mention fundamentally disconcerting - to live through turbulent times. Yet as many feel like the world is slipping out of control, artists are enlivened as they seek to make sense of the shifting sands. Hazel Wilde of Lanterns on the Lake is now a songwriter necessarily emboldened. On Spook the Herd, the band's fourth record, her voice and preoccupations rise to the fore like never before. In tandem, the band break new ground on a set of songs that are unavoidably direct - and crucial. Wilde does nothing less than dive headlong into the existential crises of our times. Beginning with the record's title - a pointed comment at the dangerously manipulative tactics of ideologues - it's nine songs turn the microscope to issues including our hopelessly polarized politics, social media, addiction, grief and the climate crisis. Yet Wilde's romantic streak is still the record's beating heart. Mining emotion in our fractured times unearths an inescapable truth: despite our seemingly myriad differences, all we have is each other. It's a hopeful beam of light shone into the darkness, and balances the cynicism and dread elsewhere.