Home Read Features Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | 2024 Addendum

Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | 2024 Addendum

Track 276 | Better late than never — am I right, Lamplight & Parlor Greens?

I am not going to complain, but it’s a little frustrating. Less than two weeks after my “best of 2024” list was published, two more albums came into my life which not only belong on that list, but belong high on that list.

The first is Lamplight’s self-titled album (which came out in March), and the other is In Green We Dream by Parlor Greens (which landed in July).

Lamplight is the music of Ian Hatcher-Williams of Brooklyn. The lush, melodic, slightly emo (in a good way), chill but swelling music is immediately affecting and engaging. I knew within seconds I was going to love this. Every song on this debut is great, some of them are exceptional.

It’s a concept record, of sorts. More of an autobiography. Hatcher-Williams has a story to tell. In fact, I’d say that even if he only had a modicum of musical talent and melodic know-how, he could probably have still made the concept work. Lucky for us, he’s an exceptional talent.

The record recounts “his odyssey from a child raised in a Virginia cult, to a burned-out tech worker in New York, and then back to Virginia, happily married to his childhood friend.”

The central theme, or motif, is the act of considering one’s own identity in relation to where they’re from and tracking its changes evolution in relation to where the person lives, and — as his Bandcamp page explains, “how that facet of self is further compounded by the amount of agency one has over where they call home.” In this way, Lamplight is about cultivating yourself.

Many of us can identify with the “that’s life” reality of being fortunate enough to learn an instrument at a young age, spend several years focused entirely on music and bands, before real jobs, careers, families and such derail the dream. Maybe, like me, you just weren’t talented enough, or didn’t practice enough… but that wasn’t the case with Hatcher-Williams. When he came back to music, he built this album from the experience. Maybe this is why I immediately liked it. It spoke to me, even before I knew what it was saying.

The record is slick, too. It’s not a fragile indie thing. It’s produced by Kevin Copeland and sounds incredible — at any volume. The melodies carry even as ambient tracers in the background, and are triumphantly crafted and arranged when blasted at full volume. It’s beautiful.

 


The other record — In Green We Dream — is quite different. For starters, it’s instrumental. Parlor Greens are something of a supergroup featuring Tim Carman (ex-GA-20) on drums, Jimmy James (True Loves, formerly Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio) on guitar, and Adam Scone (Scone Cash Players, Sugarman 3) on organ.

It was recommended to me by someone who knows his shit when it comes to quality funk and soul music: John Westhaver of Birdman Sound record shop outside Ottawa. Whenever he writes the word “killer” on a sticker and places it on the sleeve, it is worth your time. This one had it in all-caps.

To my ear, I’d describe Parlor Greens as what you’d get if you pulled your favourite threads from Root Down by Jimmy Smith, Melting Pot by Booker T. & The M.G.’s and Groove Grease by Jimmy McGriff — and then fashioned those threads into a pair of stretchy pants. This album is perfect. Every song is perfect. Life-affirming stuff. This record is a classic on par with the three I mentioned above. These are players who seem destined to work together — they know how to do it, and complement each other perfectly. If you dig this kind of music, this is a must-have.

•         •         •

Area Resident is an Ottawa-based journalist, recording artist, music collector and re-seller. Hear (and buy) his music on Bandcamp, email him HERE, follow him on Instagram and check him out on Discogs.