Tomorrows I

Arriving on the heels of a slew of archival releases, alternate versions, and solo albums by the band and its members over the prior two years, Son Lux -- founder Ryan Lott, guitarist Rafiq Bhatia, and drummer Ian Chang -- emerged in August 2020 with Tomorrows I. Inspired by world events including climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the day's ongoing political protests, Tomorrows I is presented as the first of a trilogy of albums conceived around the themes of "imbalance, disruption, collision, redefinition." The first installment's eerily dystopic pop takes the form of alternating songs and instrumentals, beginning with the brief instrumental "Dissolve." It opens quietly with fluttering, sparkling noise, piano, and string-adjacent timbres. First song "Plans We Made" starts more ominously with familiar Son Lux tonal pulses and rhythmic, yelp-like pitch bends over a slowly descending piano line. Lott's quivering voice enters with the words "I'm not asking for release/I'm not asking to forget." (Kadhja Bonet contributes backing vocals to the track.) While maintaining a slow and steady tempo, the song eventually gets more complex and fractured, adding spare percussion, heavy melodic bass, strings, and more while retaining its spacious atmosphere. Later, the volatile "Honesty" is a funkier entry that plays out like an imagined post-planetary-evacuation jazz, especially after Chang enters with his off-the-beat, full-kit playing. That track also offers a stripped-down Bhatia solo. Restrained and uniquely unbalanced, the album unfolds much more like a composed concept record than a collection of individual tracks with club potential, perhaps especially because of brief, connective instrumental passages. Tomorrows I ends with the warped, more ambient "Involution," whose final seconds are musically unresolved. ~ Marcy Donelson