Mutual Benefit
Thunder Follows the Light
Release Date: Sep 21, 2018
Genre(s): Pop/Rock
Record label: PIAS
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Album Review: Thunder Follows the Light by Mutual Benefit
Very Good, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
His third full-length set of bucolic fairydom, Thunder Follows the Light confirms Jordan Lee's status as a leading architect of musical escapism via his collaborative project Mutual Benefit. Cover art depicting light flares goes a long way in communicating the disarming, hypnotic nature of textures that combine instruments such as synthesizers, banjo, bass clarinet, and field recordings, just for starters. Inspired by literal storms and figurative ones -- namely, the effects of corporate greed and the 2016 presidential election -- there is an acknowledgment of harm within the album's beauty.
Based on rating 6.4/10
Climate change can feel like an ambient crisis--slowly, sea levels rise, at first in micrometers and then in centimeters, and then in feet. Incrementally, summers feel hotter, and storms seem to rear their heads more often and more violently. It is this combination of inevitability and deferred disaster that makes climate change an alluring inspiration for artists: Ryuichi Sakamoto salvaged a waterlogged piano from the 2011 Great Tōhoku Earthquake to manifest the warped sounds of environmental catastrophe.
Opinion: Very Good
It's been two years since John Lee released 'Skip A Sinking Stone'. It was an album that revelled in its understated beauty. Now Lee has returned along with his revolving door of musicians to release his strongest and most personal work to date, 'Thunder Follows The Light'. As with his previous albums, Lee manages to blend folky Americana with orchestral instrumentation and ambient electronica sounds.
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