Search - Lycia :: Tripping Back Into the Broken Days

Absolutely enchanting

Erica Anderson | Minneapolis, MN | 09/29/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I must confess that "Tripping Back into the Broken Days" is my first album by Lycia. My only other exposure to the group was on a Projekt compilation I bought a couple of years ago. I absolutely was taken with the ethereal vocals and delicate melodies. I found the new Lycia album today when I went scrounging around for the new Black Tape For Blue Girl cd. At this very moment, I am listening to "Tripping Back into the Broken Days" and loving every second of it. Unlike BTFBG, the vocals are a little more distinct and not as muddled down by the music (not that there isn't anything wrong with that). The production is amazing. I feel like I am right there in that abandoned farm house on the album cover, listening to this album. I wish that a lot of albums had this same raw yet pristine sound that was achieved by Steve Roach. That sort of quality is rare in most albums that I buy. So far I am loving all the songs that I am hearing right now. At this moment the standout track for me is "Asleep in the River". I find Tara's vocals on this particular track extremely soothing and comforting to listen to. "Tripping Back into the Broken Days" is a stunning album, alongside BTFBG's "The Scavenger Bride". Just breathtaking to listen to."

Placid helplessness

Micah Newman | Fort Worth, TX United States | 07/20/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"...mmmkay, unlike thebestboy, I would have to aver that NOT everyone will enjoy this. However, if you like Lycia, you most certainly (or at least probably) will.This is "really" an Estraya album, Estraya being the side project that Mike and Tara started after closing the door on Lycia. Estraya put out a self-released mini-album a couple of years ago, with stripped-down instrumentation: just acoustic guitar, keyboards, and vocals. No drums and none of the signature Lycia guitar sound. This is just like that, but longer. TBITBD was going to be an Estraya album (I emailed Tara several months ago and she told me another Estraya album had been completed), but I guess maybe someone decided the Lycia name was more marketable... whatever.Anyway, as more of the same of Estraya, this stuff certainly works. Back around _The Burning Circle And Then Dust_ Mike started to discover the atmospheric potential of the acoustic guitar, and with this kind of material finds it even more. The sound really works well, and is even more contemplative and evocative than regular Lycia. You can really *hear* the stillness, and the hazy sunshine, and the memories pushing back into the present consciousness, time pushing you along like floating down a river. Man, but Lycia always inspires in me the purplest prose I can muster! It's a good thing. :-)I'm always impressed at how well the Mike-Tara partnership works stylistically, with Tara's unique, spirited femaleness the perfect yin for Mike's brooding yang. Tara has some really nice songs here, particularly "It's Okay To Be Small" and "Asleep In The River". A lot of the songs do sound quite alike, however (I defy anyone to distinguish between "The Last Winter", "Fades Down Far", "Grey December Desert Day", and "Pale Blue Prevails"), but actually, that's something I've always kinda liked about Lycia: Mike's willingness to stick with a theme that works. There's a nice unassuming quality to it that way. Thanks for more music, you two..."

Spare & beautiful

William Timothy Lukeman | 03/29/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is music for memories, for ghosts, for nostalgic melancholy ... it's stripped down to the bare bones, and yet it's also lush & rich with feeling, haunted by benign & weary spirits. It captures the sense of lost times, of hazy golden days faded with the years, of the hushed silences & threadbare fabric of the receding past. It's resigned, reflective, floating on the passing breezes that disappear down abandoned roads. It's the finest soundtrack to sitting in an empty field, or by a solitary window, and watching the world go by like scraps of windblown paper, like sun-bleached photographs ...



For the contemplative soul, there's no better music ... wholeheartedly recommended."