Last October, I recommended Lone Assembly’s My Life’s Solid in the Weekly5, praising its swelling sound ebbing and flowing in the catacombs of their sonic cathedral. And I felt a strange familiarity back then that I couldn’t quite pinpoint.
Fastforward to today, it was obvious from the first note: The similarities between Lone Assembly and the UK post-punk revivalists of the Editors are more than on the nose, not only because the voices of Raphaël Bressler and the Editors’ Tom Smith are eerily similar. Both bands’ songs are always cloaked in a hymnic dress, both are drawing from post-punk and new wave somberness while maintaining a solid rock foundation. Both build gigantic synth melodies. So, if you‘re admiring the Editors, you won‘t go wrong with Lone Assembly‘s debut album.
Naturally, the question arises whether Lone Assembly can be easily discarded as mere copycats. And although that‘s a harsh and tricky aspect to assess with a debut album on hand, my preliminary verdict would be: No.