"Lonesome Dreams," the brilliant new record from Lord Huron, is the story of a man as an island, with more wanderlust than he knows what to do with. He's a roaming cowboy, a penniless troubadour and a potent poet, setting out to discover just what it means to barely exist. He's a man who wants so much for the homing device to kick back in, for the timing to be just right, to return to a place that used to be a home or just feels like home used to feel. He's made promises to others and he's promised himself some things too, but he's made the journey feel like it's going to be an arduous marathon. He's not going to be able to reel it in. It's going to be elusive until it just isn't anymore, until it just runs out of energy to be difficult. It's going to be elusive until he turns to dust, which he's well aware is something that's going to happen, even as he sings about the impossible goal of living forever on one song on the record.
The dream of being gone a long, long time but eventually coming home again feels like it comes from such a peaceful place here. "Lonesome Dreams" also feels like dozens of promises that are never going to be kept. You can't help but believe in the failure that this man is going to find himself facing. He's never going to get home. He's never not going to be wandering around, sensing that he's gone a quest to complete. Lead singer Ben Schneider sings about being the lord of the lake and never wanting to leave on one song. Meanwhile, on "I Will Be Back One Day," he sings:
I wanna live in a land of lakes
Where the great waves break
And the night runs right into the day
I wanna be with ones I left
But I'm on my way out west
And the years keep on slipping away
I wanna run on the sacred dunes
Through the ancient ruins
Where the fires of my ancestors burned
I remember that fateful day
When I ran away
And you told me I couldn't return
You made me swear I'd never forget
I made a vow I'd see you again
I will be back one day, and I'll find you
There by the great big lake
The finale's in the clouds, yet to be plucked, yet to be burnished.