Welcome to the Boolin Tunes Staff Spotlight, a special segment on the site in which we dive deep into a classic or simply personally beloved album to shine a light on releases that we feel deserve a second glance.
“I would have told you that the mountains is where I take all my inspiration from, but that was just sort of where I was inspired at one point,” says Multi-instrumentalist Joey Vannucchi. He started things off during the Myspace era as Songs From Indian Lakes, referencing the Central California town where the material was recorded. The location then and now are inseparable from the music. He finally reached a wider audience with the self-released and self-produced Able Bodies in 2012. Since 2009, he’s continued as simply From Indian Lakes, an indie chart darling and folk hero before signing to Triple Crown Records in 2013. From Indian Lakes delivered on the potential with label debut Absent Sounds in 2014. More driven and focused than later releases despite being slower than its predecessor, Absent Sounds represents the peak of the mountain for From Indian Lakes.
The album kicks off with the reserved “Come in this Light”, driven by atmospheric passages, hollow drums, and Joey Vannucchi‘s signature high, melancholy vocals:
Come in this light
You only need to feel loved
But you let the dark in
When you open up the door
The instrumentation is more friendly to open spaces than the bulk of his previous material. The remote setting allows Vannucchi to sound like what he is – a one-man band in a small home studio. The inherent loneliness of this backdrop reflects both thematically and lyrically, such as in the track “Awful Things“:
You’re haunting our bedroom
And the hallway
And I still hear your voice in my head
Saying awful things
The love-loss dichotomy is the primary source material for the album’s most haunting moments. Vannucchi‘s rare delivery is convincing and honest, which ties the theme together. The sound itself, however, is often light and delicate, which prevents the journey from becoming a slog.
And you don’t have to be anyone
And you sail on alone
In this fog
But you don’t know anyone
At all
Overall, the album comes across as deceptively simple, but the complexities of the compositions shine through clearly with repeated listens. Whether the backing electric guitar accompanied by the driving acoustics of “Runner” , or the layered depths of “Fog” giving way to Vannucchi standing alone yet again at album’s end, Absent Sounds constantly surprises, but remains on-topic. From Indian Lakes managed to drop one of the most vulnerable and accessible albums of the decade with this release. It remains steadily in my rotation to this day. I hope it can find its way into yours.
Otherwise, I’ll see you next Sunday for another retrospective from our team.