Dissatisfaction is an important part of grunge rock’s increasingly rich heritage, but few of the genre’s descendants feel as authentically discontent. Lera Lynn is unique, then, in that she comes with all of that genre’s lyrical trappings, but few of its musical boundaries. Resistor sees her embracing minimalistic soundscapes without descending into the simplicity of power chords.
Subtleties throughout Lynn’s music reveal her love affair with jazz and folk. The solos and driving bass lines, in particular, seems to be influenced by jazz traditions. Her band’s use of bass is fascinating to me, because it allows her other instrumentalists to be more expressive and experimental.
Despite all that, though, the album never feels anything other than minimalistic. Lera Lynn doesn’t have an interest in wide soundscapes. On Run the Night,the backing tracks are used to great effect, but the song’s power wouldn’t be lost if it were sung a cappella. In that regard, the music serves as a creator of atmosphere for Lynn’s vocal work.
That combination is what likely made her the perfect fit for inclusion in the second season of HBO’s True Detective, where she played a down-and-out heroin addict with a recurring musical gig at a dive bar. The show’s atmosphere suits her music well: bleak, self-contained, largely internal turmoil decorate the record.
Even on the album’s more quickly paced tracks, like Shape Shifter and Drive, the focus is on Lynn’s haunting vocal work shaping each track. Her vocals are effortless; she sounds at once constant and ephemeral. On tracks like Cut + Burn and What You Done, she elevates the music’s mood and takes the songs to another place.
Most importantly, Lera Lynn feels like an undiscovered voice of another dissatisfied generation. Resistor is a fantastically impressive, bleak work that captivates and enthrals not solely because of its atmosphere, but because of the voice that rises above it.