Upcoming Texas band Clement Hall takes on the music industry with debut album “songs from lamesa”
Clement Hall via Instagram
Members of upcoming band Clement Hall, Luke Hamaker, Quinn Edgar, Aidan Haydu, Tyler Cush, and Gus Olivera started off their musical journey playing covers of popular songs in their college town of Lubbock, Texas. Bringing in crowds into living rooms and backyards with their talent, Clement Hall has moved into the release of their first album “songs from lamesa”, including a cover of The Cure’s boys dont cry. Featuring a previous 2022 single annie, this album is energetic, diverse, and storytelling album—sure to be added to your playlists.
Introducing themselves with a new sound, their first song “clement hall” brings in a sense of electronic blues to an indie album. Fading into their typical style, clement hall shows to be a great, ambient-setting opener which highlights the bands flexibility in trying out new and arguably different sounds than that of a typical indie band. Unlike the rest of the album, this song focuses longer on the instrumentals than the lyrics of the song. Yet, their lyricism still stands out with a catchy tune, setting the scene for the rest of the album.
Being previously released, “annie” leads the album as a lasting fan favorite. Standing out with its exceptionally catchy lyrics and melody, annie resembles songs of bands such as Bad Suns and Colony House. The energy and meloudiosness makes you want to wish to be able to experience the performance live. Starting off strong, annie is set to have you on your feet dancing and singing along.
Tuning down, “fed up” focuses on different musical talents of the band, creating a calmer but still up-beat energy. Based on the want to escape the ties one feels to medication, fed up is the story of being forced into life dulling pills, and the way they affect its user, a story many of these times can relate to. Despire the song's melancholy lyricism, Clement Hall's upbeat sound remains persistent throughout the album, shown through a larger part of the song. Nearing the end, Clement Hall slows it down leaving room for the musicality of the song to shine and carrying on the feeling of slowing down in their lyrics onto their sound.
“Cabernet” stands out in its lyricism. Similar to that of “fed up” Clement hall’s songwriter Luke Hamaker uses cabernet to take a melancholy feeling and set it to a groovy and otherwise upbeat tone. One of the highlights of the song is its pause for the introduction of the acoustic guitar, keeping its audience interested and bringing the beat back up throughout the song, a sound not heard yet on their album. Overall, “cabernet” is definitely going to be a necessity on any of your chill and relaxed playlists.
Featuring Filo, “middle of the world (butterflies)” brings back the up-beat energy similar to annie. With Filo’s talent, Clement Hall creates a strong point for the song with a high vocal focus, simplifying the instrumental and adding a new sound to their album. Story-wise, this song has a similar tone as their previously mentioned songs fed up and cabernet. middle of the world (butterflies) describes someone's darkest thoughts, while having an energetic sound anyone can still enjoy. The contrast in these allows the band's audience to still jam out while being able to interpret the lyrics to however is true to them.
“Dorm song” ends off the album with an amazing transition from the consistent energetic tone to a lower, calmer one. Offering a change, the song leads with an acoustic and mellow sound. The highlight of the song being the instrumental drop of this song will have you sink into the music wishing for more. With a similar sound to the leading song of the album, “clement hall”, “dorm song” serves as the perfect ending to their first album.
With its creatively meaningful songwriting and instrumentaals, Clement Hall’s first album is definitely one to be bragged about.