Review / 200 Words Or Less
Long Lost
Save Yourself, Start Again

Long Lost first began life as the acoustic side project of Transit frontman Joe Boynton, shortly after the release of Transit's fourth album Young New England he turned his attention to Long Lost making it his main band. The result of this is Save Yourself, Start Again, an album of songs consisting of retrospective glances and attempts of retribution. Perhaps the album serves as a kind of catharsis for Boynton, but the songs struggle to capture as much believability as is needed to carry the weight of some of the lyrics.

Boyton's vocals only very occasionally sound like he genuinely means what he's singing, and there are a number of lyrical weaknesses that are impossible to ignore ("All that floats will float/And all that breaks will break"). The highlights on the album are "Wild Heart" and the title track, both displaying the tight musicianship and sincerity that the rest of the album lacks. A lot of the songs, even though rarely hitting the three minute mark, tend to meander and this makes a lot of the tracks on Save Yourself, Start Again sound like they're not fully formed or lyrically convincing of what they're trying to convey.