Lily Seabird – Lightspheres on Their Way

Burlington, Vermont-based singer-songwriter Lily Seabird’s third album since 2024 marks a leap forward that is almost comical in its scale. There was nothing wrong with the grunge-infused folk of 2024’s Alas, or the more conservative folk-rock of last year’s Trash Mountain, but Lightspheres on Their Way is simply superior in every domain. This is the difference between sounding a bit like Adrianne Lenker, or evoking Karly Hartzman of Wednesday, and actually writing songs and performing at that level. Lightspheres is the sound of Lily Seabird marching up to the top table and demanding a seat, and after spending some quality time with this intoxicating record, it’s impossible to argue that she hasn’t earned it.

Lightspheres fuses familiar ingredients with new textures. The raucous guitars on the 2024 track “Grace” clearly foreshadow the anthemic “Election Day,” which builds upon muscular riffs and squalling feedback to serve as the album’s riotous centrepiece. The parts aren’t necessarily different, but the sum is much greater. Compositionally, the finger-picked “Pennsy” would fit comfortably on Trash Mountain, but Eliza Niemi’s melancholy cello lifts it to another level.

Daniel Snyder’s harmonium adds a different shade of colour to  “The Pulley,” a bold opening track given its sluggish tempo and portentous drone, but a powerful one nonetheless. And as if to emphasise the circular journey of Lightspheres, the harmonium returns on the title track that closes the album, creating a perfect symmetry. Seabird’s observational lyrics have a smart, literary slant, befitting an English graduate, and “Lightspheres on Their Way” features one of the record’s most beautifully evocative couplets: “Underneath those Bucks County stars with her cigarettes in the snow/Bleary-eyed and too far gone crying out to her daily dose of The Dead.”

From the songwriting to the sequencing, Lightspheres on Their Way feels like the destination Lily Seabird has been marching towards. This is the sound of her triumphant arrival, and arguably the breakthrough of the year to date.

Lightspheres On Their Way is out now via Lame-O.