Furnishings

Chronique

Indie songwriter Lachlan Denton's crushingly beautiful 2019 solo album A Brother mourned the death of his brother and musical collaborator Zac while celebrating his memory. The incredibly touching songs were hushed and spare, using minimal and often acoustic arrangements that were gentler than much of Denton's work with his multiple other bands. He stayed busy after the record's release with the feel-good indie pop of Partner Look and Pop Filter (a quasi-continuation of the melancholic melodicism of he and his brother's band the Ocean Party), but he returns to reflections on grief, loss, and family on the solo outing Furnishings. Instead of the murmuring acoustic guitars and quiet tunes of A Brother, however, Denton explores various styles that are sunnier and livelier than the often tender emotional themes of the songs. "Zac" opens the album, and though it's another direct tribute to Lachlan's departed brother, the song's pleasantly plasticky synth lines and peppy drum machine rhythms are anything but somber. This same upbeat approach is applied throughout the first half of Furnishings, with "You" also leaning into synth pop tones and the fizzy guitar pop of "Lose" sounding like a more motivated version of the Clean or Yo La Tengo at their most rambunctious. At exactly midway through, the tonality and instrumentation shift to the slower, more thoughtful sound of A Brother. Acoustic numbers like "Dad," "Ebony," and "Mum" reflect on family and growing up, serving as a comedown from the more energetic first half but still sneaking in the wobbly interlude "Workshop" and lo-fi keyboard experiment "Changed." In many ways, Furnishings acts as a musical mirror for Denton's grief. A few years removed from the immediate loss, the pain isn't as raw or all-encompassing, and this is embodied in the album's spectrum of curious songwriting and arrangement styles. No amount of time or distance is ever going to fully heal the wound of losing a loved one, though, and Denton's songs convey this as well. Furnishings is a vulnerable expression of life moving on after tragedy, and it does an incredible job of communicating how even the most traumatic loss can slowly become a part of the lives of those left behind.
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