Lightheaded are, simply, a great pop group. Their songs are full of melody and harmony, are bittersweet and memorable, familiar yet original. Their sound is a perfect mix of jangling guitars — featuring Sarah Abdlebarry’s exquisite, tasteful, but punchy Gretsch lead played over Stephen Stec’s Rickenbacker chime — anchored to singer Cynthia Rickenbach’s Hofner Violin bass, which sounds like the bass on Michel Polnareff’s first LP.
Their debut LP Combustible Gems – is an LP about a band finding their sound, exploring notes, chords, and melody and making uncannily great music along the way. First single ‘Dawn Hush Lullaby’ features an electric folk-pop sensibility that starts like a waltz, but goes into Greenwich Village pop time, like a sweet Norma Tanega tune. The album drops May 17 via Slumberland.
Stephen says of the track: “I didn’t think of the title ‘Dawn Hush Lullaby,’ I found it. Awhile back, I had fallen for someone with a really lovely voice who lived far away so we would be texting for hours, but I could read her messages in her voice and replay our conversations in my head. I was alone one night, scrolling on Tumblr, when I saw a post from 1934, where Wilfred J Funk listed the ten most beautiful words in the English language. The first three? Dawn. Hush. Lullaby. And that’s just how her voice sounded.”
Combustible Gems:
- Always Sideways
- Dawn Hush Lullaby
- Moments Notice
- Still Sitting Sunday
- Bright Happy Girls
- Hugging Horizons
- You and Your Mother
- Because of You
