''Infinite Light'' is the second album by

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

indie rock band

Lightning Dust Lightning Dust is a Canadian indie rock band formed in 2007 and based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The band is a side project of Amber Webber and Joshua Wells, both members of Black Mountain.Jagjaguwar Jagjaguwar is an American independent record label based in Bloomington, Indiana. History In 1996, in Charlottesville, Virginia, University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public resear ...

."Lightning Dust Reveal ''Infinite Light'' Details"
''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...

'', May 27, 2009.

Composition

Compared to the group's eponymous debut album, ''Infinite Light'' takes the group in an

experimental pop Experimental pop is pop music that cannot be categorized within traditional musical boundaries or which attempts to push elements of existing popular forms into new areas. It may incorporate experimental music, experimental techniques such as m ...

direction; it is gentler and smoother, mixing electronic drum beats, synthesizers,

reverb In acoustics, reverberation (commonly shortened to reverb) is a persistence of sound after it is produced. It is often created when a sound is reflected on surfaces, causing multiple reflections that build up and then decay as the sound is a ...

effects and lush

string arrangement The string section of an orchestra is composed of bowed instruments belonging to the violin family. It normally consists of first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses. It is the most numerous group in the standard orchestra. In ...

s. According to one reviewer, the classical strings and downbeat piano combine with Amber Webber's "tender yet confrontational voice" for a theatrical feel. The album is eclectic, comprising stringed ballads,

psychedelic folk Psychedelic folk (sometimes acid folk or freak folk) is a loosely defined form of psychedelic music that originated in the 1960s. It retains the largely acoustic instrumentation of contemporary folk music, folk, but adds musical elements common ...

, downbeat 'dirges' and mid-tempo songs held together by roomy drums and eerie keyboards. "The Time" is a

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western musi ...

song with

tabla A ''tabla'' is a pair of hand drums from the Indian subcontinent. Since the 18th century, it has been the principal percussion instrument in Hindustani classical music, where it may be played solo, as an accompaniment with other instruments a ...

, while "Antonia Jane" has drawn comparison to

Arcade Fire Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band from Montreal, Quebec, consisting of husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, alongside Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury, and Jeremy Gara. The band's touring line-up includes former core ...

Critical reception

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, ''Infinite Light'' has an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 76, based on 13 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Margaret Reges of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

praised Webber's "haunted" singing, comparing her to "

Chan Marshall Charlyn Marie "Chan" Marshall ( ; born January 21, 1972), better known by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer-songwriter. Cat Power was originally the name of her first band, but has become her stage name as a solo artist. Born in ...

with a Gatling-gun vibrato" and writing that her voice perfectly complements the band's "theatrical, darkly glimmering compositions." '' Clash'' reviewer Stephen Maughan considers it a "rewarding album" with a timeless appeal, as it is "something worth visiting through the good times, and bad." For ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...

'', Anthony Lombardi considered the album a "refreshing follow-up" to ''Lightning Dust'' and writes that although it is not groundbreaking, it builds upon the group's output. Amy Granzin of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' considers the album's "overall quality" to partly be for its short length, and noted how the songs begin with standard

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

structures before expanding into "inventive, genre-exploding arrangements", noting an eclectic array of influences including

krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It originated among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electron ...

, piano singer-songwriters,

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring two or more women in music, female singers who generally vocal harmony, harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female p ...

s and

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac are a British-American Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1967 by the singer and guitarist Peter Green (musician), Peter Green. Green named the band by combining the surnames of the drummer, Mick Fleetwood, and the bassis ...

. Rob Wohl of ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

'' described how the grand piano and retro synths underpin "a mess of ideas", but praised the epic ballads "Never Seen" and "Waiting on the Sun to Rise", which he likened to

Bat for Lashes Natasha Khan (born 25 October 1979), known professionally as Bat for Lashes, is an English singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. She has released six studio albums: '' Fur and Gold'' (2006), ''Two Suns'' (2009), '' The Haunt ...

. '' Under the Radar'' reviewer J. Pace drew comparison with Lightning Dust's sister band Black Mountain, writing that both exist "somewhat outside of historical context" and favouring "an audible '70s bias". However, they added that "if Black Mountain indulges the riff, Lightning Dust indulges the song." A reviewer for ''Alternative Press'' considered the album to reveal how Lightning Dust have "stepped away from Black Mountain's shadow".

Track listing

References

2009 albums Experimental pop albums Lightning Dust albums Jagjaguwar albums {{2000s-indie-rock-album-stub