“I wanted to change the world, but I ended up doing nothing all day”
So begins Lost Summer, the new EP from Talons’. If you’re not familiar with Talons’ then you should be. It’s primarily the recording work of Mike Tolan, although various others have contributed along the way. Tolan makes hushed, very sad songs which could be described as bedroom pop or post-folk or some other such phrase. All you need to know is that it’s really good. The great news is that Lost Summer is intended to precede a brand new album, After Talons’, which I am very excited about.
The EP plays like the internal musings of a normal person. That’s ‘normal’ in that their thoughts are filled with an honesty and sincerity so earnest that it comes off as a certain brand of weirdness. ‘Normal’ in that they spend the rest of their time anxious about this dysfunctionality and how apparent it must be to everyone else.
“And in between bands, I nurse my one beer and stare at the floor, wishing that I had an iPhone, so it wouldn’t be so clear that I’m not talking to anyone”
While the lyrics may seem like an internal dialogue, other sections reveal that there is a second part here, a signifcant other, and the words begin to read like a collections of worries, admissions of weakness and joy that are achingly simple. There are no grand promises, cinematic splits and reunions, no explicit declarations. Lost Summer says “I Love You” in a much more affecting way than any of that.
“When the plane went down/you were at home. But then the phone rang/but it was just me checking in from work. It slid across a road and into someone’s back yard and when it stopped- No one we knew died. No one we’d ever know died.”
Get Lost Summer on a pay-what-you-want basis via the Talons’ Bandcamp page.