OVER THE SATISFYING clink of ricocheting pool balls, Lubec frontman Eddie Charlton (vocals/guitar) describes the inspiration behind the Portland band’s newest record, Cosmic Debt.
“It’s basically the balance of your karma throughout all the lives you’ve led, and hopefully in a well-lived life you’re learning and adjusting and trying to change your cosmic debt into a positive,” he says.
Lubec’s second full-length follows 2014’s The Thrall, a record Caroline Jackson (keyboard/vocals) describes as “a celebration of being young.” Charlton adds that at the time of its creation, this debut reflected “the appeal of limitless possibility.” But blurred horizons and seemingly endless highways eventually reach crossroads, markers in time and space that force momentary pause.
Cosmic Debt embodies this inescapable reflection; it’s both claustrophobic and dynamic, a 12-song encapsulation of the moment when you start to wonder about your own “cosmic debt” credit score and whether or not you’re in the red. This transitory feeling is reflected in unpredictably reactive drumming from Matt Dressen; Charlton’s geometric, calculated guitar riffs; and Jackson’s fuzzed-out classical piano. The result is carbonated shoegaze, too fizzy and frenetic to be dreamy but too distorted to feel like reality. “We sort of intentionally try to ride some line between jarring and catchy,” says Dressen.