While some indie bands, with their impenetrable song structures, vexing lyrics, and contrived wardrobes, practically beckon for a lambasting, Chapel Hill's Doleful Lions aim to purr and meow their way onto your lap in the damned most adorable way possible. For seven years they've Snuffleupagussed themselves into fans' hearts by setting saccharine folk-pop in a lysergic fantasyland of sasquatches, werewolves, and other assorted bugaboos. Yet even at their most far-fetched offerings, the band's only elicited a mere chuckle and slap on the wrist from critics. That's the perk of possessing one of the most soothing lullaby voices this side of Stuart Murdoch, and singer Jonathan Scott knows it.
On 2002's Out Like a Lamb, Scott finally cashed in on his stirring voice and keen pop sensibilities by ebbing his New Age fixations and utilizing a full band. For better or worse, Shaded Lodge marks a return to the cauldron for the Lions as studio wizard David Jackson and Scott collaborate to conjure up more kooky things that go bump in the night. However, "kooky" for the Lions is hardly an Olivia Tremor Control or even Flaming Lips brand of quirky pop, but rather stripped down Simon and Garfunkel acoustic ditties drenched in reverb and the occasional sound effect.
Despite the eerie blips and screeches, Out Like a Lamb is the only thing really haunting this record. The tracklist's split between sprightly indie pop and drowsy, woebegone folk. Opener "Shame Magic in the Night Galley" takes a ginger step towards ebullient pop but it's reserved and simplistic sound portends the downcast mood swing to come. "Watch the Skies / A Boy's Life" follows the tradition of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" both musically and lyrically, though cumbersome images of Arthurian adventure convolute its message: "Let's smash the magic wonder window...in the halls of Abel's fault." I mean, the stagnant melody's uninspiring enough, but who'd actually rally around the credo "Snuff the mortal candelabra's light"?
Luckily tracks like "Destroyer of the West" and "Satanic Blood" stand as the white knights in this tale. The former features Elliott Smith/Cass McCombs hybrid vocals coupled with jangly guitar almost slow enough to pass as shoegazer. Yeah, "Satanic Blood" is another "Just Like Heaven" permutation, but Scott's raspy vocals greatly contrasts Robert Smith's, and these days who isn't hitching ersatz Cure tracks to their albums for good measure? After all, immediacy like this makes Scott's seven-minute doldrums somewhat worth the wait. However, while fantastical lyrics and Lord of the Rings settings may buy you time when ideas are lacking, as Scott himself sings, add too much filler and "the hexagon and necroworm won't wait."
