(Self-released, digital)
In a recent Instagram video, Luminous Crush band members Bay Campbell and Laura Molinelli have a cute disagreement: Is their new studio album, Bury the Rock, their seventh or eighth? (It depends on whether you count their currently unavailable LP Live From Lonely Highway Studio. Or their compilation Anthology.)
Given how prolific the Jamaica, Vt., duo has been in the past several years, it may not even be worth it to keep track. In the same video, Campbell and Molinelli inform their followers that they’re already working on a new one.
Luminous Crush’s Bandcamp page claims they make “original bluegrass outlaw country post-punk psychedelic fusion indie dream pop searing rock metal and whatnot.” That’s a clever catchall for whatever stylistic inclinations strike them as they hunker down in their magic factory, the aforementioned Lonely Highway Studio. Indeed, Bury the Rock is a wide-ranging pop-rock album that constantly surprises.
Luminous Crush welcomed a cast of guest contributors on 2023’s Farewell to the Rainbow Cattle Company. Bury the Rock is all Campbell and Molinelli. The new album isn’t stripped down, exactly, but a subdued quality permeates its 15 tracks. It’s as if the two twisted their inner dimmer switch a few degrees to the left.
Released on November 11, just days after the presidential election, Bury the Rock opens appropriately with “Breathing Song.” Over muscular bass and a rollicking beat, Molinelli instructs listeners to breathe in and out as if leading a guided meditation. A song about being connected to something larger than oneself, it begins the record with some much-needed positivity and reassurance.
Swimming with acoustic guitar and urgent vocal harmonies, the declarative “The Internet Has Ruined Everything” laments a digitally flattened world. “You used to draw / You used to paint / You used to write and read and dance and sing,” Molinelli sings, longing for a simpler time. The song doesn’t aim to solve anything, only takes stock of an unfortunate, irreversible reality.
One of Luminous Crush’s hallmarks is the way they balance seriousness with whimsy. For all their sincerity, little bits of snark always seem to find their way into their tunes.
“You’re so pretty / But you feel shitty / And it shows,” Molinelli sings on the percussive “Disappointed Girl.” On “Joann,” a syncopated, jangle-pop number, Campbell throws some loving shade at the title character: “Singing karaoke / She’s a little pitchy,” she sings.
Dipping into beach-pop for penultimate cut “Indulging the Artist,” the duo surfs on quickly picked, dirty guitar. Campbell and Molinelli lock into ascendant harmony as they sing about the frenzy of creative inspiration.
Comforting, invigorating and imaginative, Luminous Crush never disappoint. With Bury the Rock, they prove themselves to be fearless artists with a seemingly never-ending supply of colorful pop music.
Bury the Rock is available at luminouscrush.bandcamp.com and on all major streaming platforms.
This article appears in Nov 20-26, 2024.
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