Album Review: The Wild Feathers – Lonely Is A Lifetime
2 min read
When it comes to The Wild Feathers’ sophomore album Lonely Is A Lifetime, something feels a little different. For all intents and purposes, their style has remained the same, showcasing a similar attitude and covering the same genres that they did the first time around. It’s a decent album with a good chunk of quality material going for it, but at the same time the album finds itself struggling in ways that their debut didn’t seem to face that drag the overall package down.
The biggest factor that helps the album is the position of its best tracks; namely opening on the soaring chorus and guitar solo of Overnight and the morphing country and blues mid-tempo stylings of Goodbye Song, and eventually closing on the mid-tempo rock of Into the Sun and Hallelujah, a strange experimental beast that mixes simple digital drums with acoustic guitar that makes for an unexpected and unusual ending. By beginning and ending with its strongest tracks, it means that you both enter and exit the album with a good impression. These are some seriously enjoyable songs.
Its middle section, however, is where it struggles. Don’t Ask Me to Change had the makings of the album’s strongest track, from its catchy uptempo introduction to its loud, compelling choruses; while it remains enjoyable, its sudden dip into a downtempo middle eight breaks the amazing flow the song had prior, creating a bit of a roadblock. The following tracks never really regain their footing until the title track Lonely is a Lifetime, either featuring awkward riffs that throw the song off like in Happy Again or generally lacking hooking factors, which affects most of this middle section. As a solid third of the album, this leaves it in an awkward position.
While Lonely is a Lifetime is overall enjoyable, it also lacks the consistency and strength that The Wild Feathers’ debut album featured. With most of its noteworthy content existing at either the front or back end of the album, its first and last impressions are good, but the slog of content in the middle can make it difficult to deal with. Even with its defining tracks, the decline in exciting moments on Lonely is a Lifetime is ultimately disappointing.
