Album Review: Longwave by Bonny Doon

Following their debut self-titled album in 2017, Bonny Doon are back with Longwave and the laidback and existential undertone of this album is intimate and emotional. Their nonchalant vibe can often overlook the emotional discourse on each track, however, when you listen closely, Longwave is heavy-hearted and sympathetic. On "Saved," Bobby Colombo wistfully sings "I was helpless but hopeful / waiting to be saved / I was humbled and broken laying in my grave," followed by distorted guitar riffs and sluggish drumming, this track apprehensively uncovers salvation.

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Released almost exactly a year after their eponymous debut, Bonny Doon's Woodsist label debut sticks with the ambling, Pavement-descended indie rock that has defined the quartet's sound, but makes some significant updates. While the Fred Thomas-produced Bonny Doon was more textured and had flashes of vibrant guitar pop, on Longwave, the band commits to a stripped-down approach that settles into the rocking chair on the back porch with a cat on its lap. Born from improvisation during a band retreat to secluded Mystic Lake in their home state of Michigan, it was recorded shortly thereafter with Bill Skibbe (Jacuzzi Boys, the Kills) and Shelley Salant (Tyvek, Swimsuit), with minimal overdubs.

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Sometime last spring, the four members of Detroit's Bonny Doon fled to a house in the woods of Northern Michigan for a creative retreat near the auspiciously named Mystic Lake. Over the course of one very productive week, the band wrote their second album, Longwave, a sober, spartan folk-rock record with a spontaneous feel. "Sometimes we'll just go up and bring and a tape machine and record sessions for four or five days," said Bill Lennox, one of the group's two singer-songwriters, in an interview last year.

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