The Lucid
The Lucid
self-released

Click to hear: “Mothership”

Now I get it.

Last December, in a review of the latest Greetings from Area Code 207 comp, I complained that The Lucid’s “Mothership” “never takes off.” In retrospect, it does achieve levitation, but that’s not why I feel stupid now.

Heard in context, the first track on The Lucid provides just the right amount of lift to send this spaceship of an album on its strange and beautiful voyage. You really have to hear the whole thing. In one sitting. On Molly. Then you’ll get it, too.

You may even get the lyrics. I don’t do hallucinogens anymore, so I guess I’ll never know what Dominic Lavoie is singing about on this album. Something about freedom and truth and a girl. They call themselves The Lucid (formerly Dominic and The Lucid), but the lyrics are anything but. Just look at the song titles: “Dixie Crystals,” “Cedar Bonsai,” “Maiden Flight of the Golden Calf.”

“Can you show me? Would you call me? If the horses turned to dust? If all our souls melt into glue and our smiles begin to rust?” So begins the second song, “Frontierless.” “Here comes the wisdom, here comes the sorrow.”

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what the words mean when they’re wrapped in such gorgeous, graceful music. The Lucid has shown the ability to write engaging psych-rock songs in the past, as on 2008’s Seasons of the Sun. But here their vision is album-wide.

The Lucid is a coherent concept record (notwithstanding the fact the concept is incoherent). The first seven songs ebb and flow in intensity in a way that feels natural, culminating in the majestic crescendo of “Golden Calf.”

The eighth and last song, “Like on TV,” is an epilogue of sorts. Of what sort? Of a very odd sort, but quite lovely.

Lavoie has a distinctive and expressive voice, and he really goes for it here — reaching for, and grabbing, some very ethereal high notes (most notably on “Excommunation.”) He and the other four guys in the band recorded almost all the music live in a big room at Rocking Horse Studio in New Hampshire. That process has given the album a loose, live vibe.

So, sorry, guys, for dissing “Mothership” last year. It really should be heard in context. And as Casey Kasem says, “keep reaching for the stars.”

— Chris Busby

The Lucid plays Fri., April 15, at The Big Easy (55 Market St., Portland), at 10:45 p.m., as part of a benefit show for the Rusty Rocket Music Fund. For more on the band, visit thelucidmusic.com.