Oslo-based LAZY QUEEN have released their brand new EP ‘A Human Reaction’ via Swedish label, Icons Creating Evil Art. Featuring the highly-acclaimed singles ‘Bed/Head’, ‘Alcohol’ and new single ‘Detached, Together’, Lazy Queen’s latest instalment is both an insurmountable emotional maelstrom and the exhausted, tattered calm that follows.
It seems there is no topic too sensitive for the Oslo-based four piece, they delight in weaving bouncy pop melodies around the darkest lyrical sentiments, caught up in a howl of guitars and newly explored electronic elements. With a run time of just over 18 minutes, ‘A Human Reaction’ is packed full of comforting and danceable future favourites from Lazy Queen.
‘A Human Reaction’ was first pieced together within the confines of Henrik García Søberg’s home studio. Melodies were mapped out from the same desk as the band’s most nuanced yet still edgy lyrics were being scrawled. Like almost every artist in the world in 2020, Lazy Queen were negotiating lockdowns and semi-lockdowns, and it is this combination of pressure and frustration that has led to their most honest and developed work to date.
“A Human Reaction” Tracklist:
- Bed/Head
- Â
- Alcohol
- Hūmäń
- Detached, Together
- Rėāçtįöń
- Leech
- Forget It (Outro)
Listen on all major streaming services here
Produced by Morten Øby at Taakenheimen Lydriket in Oslo, Lazy Queen band members would head into the studio in fragmented slots, unable to exact their vexation in ways they had on previous releases. In spite of this, ‘A Human Reaction’ is an expansive record that integrates itself in the psyche of its listeners, leaving a sense of heart-warming riff-heavy recognition.Vocalist/guitarist Henrik García Søberg (they/them) explains “As a whole, I would describe the mood of this record as one of isolation, but writing about feeling lonely, it’s not to make other people feel alone or isolated, it’s rather the opposite. There’s always the option of letting yourself sit and get lost in those emotions, but making the choice of saying something, whether that be to write a song about it, picking up a phone to call a friend – you’re making a choice to prove those overwhelming feelings wrong.”
Persistent in their pursuit of experimentation, ‘A Human Reaction’ kicks off with the vibrant first single ‘Bed/Head’ which opens with a deviation from previous work – a bubbling electronic intro. “We included a lot of new elements into our sonic palette on these recordings. Rock is very rigid and traditional, the bands that are interesting to us are the ones standing with feet in several genres. Opening the EP with the “Bed/Head” intro we wanted to make it really clear that we don’t really give a fuck about genre rules – but then we kick into a straight, punk thing on ‘Alcohol”, so it’s still very much us”. Tracks like new single ‘Detached Together’ and ‘Leech’ serve as guitar-charged, electro-tinged little glimmers of hope in the face of overwhelming devastation, loss of identity and substance abuse. “You’re trying to make something out of a feeling that feels very hopeless,” Henrik says of their experience. Woven into ‘A Human Reaction’s broad bouncy sweep are interlude tracks that spell out the EP’s title – a deeply personal late addition that was originally only meant for the ears of Lazy Queen’s inner operating circle, distorted and abstracted by electronic musician Brage Sanner (of the Oslo-based band j00). Explaining further, “I knew I wanted to include some transitional parts when we were writing the record”. Henrik continues, ”I was going through a rough patch and nothing made sense. The recording used for those transitions was this thing that was supposed to be only heard by a very few people, but in the end it felt really fitting to put it into the record. It felt like it needed to be there.”
In summing up ‘A Human Reaction’, Henrik offers a contemplative remark. “At the moment, like a lot of things, it’s hard to get a hold of – it’s hard to see the shape of this and what impact it’ll make.” They continue on, “We were really able to say what we wanted to say, even though I have no idea what that is. And it needed to come out like it has, in this moody, time capsule but I’m still learning about how I was feeling”.
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