SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: AARON WEST AND THE ROARING TWENTIES – IN LIEU OF FLOWERS

AARON WEST AND THE ROARING TWENTIES
IN LIEU OF FLOWERS
HOPELESS RECORDS

Dan Campbell solo project Aaron West & The Roaring Twenties have released their third album, In Lieu of Flowers. This comes nearly five years after the previous album, Routine Maintenance, and almost 10 years after the initial debut, We Don’t Have Each Other. Thanks to being such an anticipated release, expectations have been through the roof. Thankfully, this album not only delivered but even went beyond that and truly cemented Dan Campbell as one of the greatest artists of his generation.

In Lieu of Flowers starts with the haunting and explosive “Smoking Rooms”, which hits you right in a direction of confusion yet intrigue, and then the next song, “Roman Candles”, will completely switch up in a new direction. Essentially, In Lieu of Flowers is a work that seamlessly blends various styles into one cohesive masterpiece. Each track explicitly and beautifully expresses a sense of grief, which unifies and connects everything. Even though “Roman Candles” can best be possibly described, for instance, as a possible optimistic track through how it sounds, it is marked with grief at once as well. As great as this album is at shifting styles, the best part may be how it manages a variety of tones effortlessly. You’ll have a more emotional, optimistic, and even anger-stricken song like “Roman Candles”, and then afterwards you will have “Paying Bills At The End Of The World”, a quieter and more emotional song.

It is an album that blooms with beauty and pain all at once, with some of the most mesmerising use of different styles in an album matched only by the way the band is able to also manage grief and hope all at once. The production is always on top, and, even more, the vocals are hooking through each track, making each lyric and each thought expressed hit so much deeper.

In Lieu of Flowers is an unforgettable and haunting experience full of pain and hope that is truly gripping to hear. The vocals are hooking, and the variety of styles used are genius and help to capture the wide variety of concepts this album covers. This is, without a shadow of a doubt, the highlight and certainly an album worth the nearly five years of waiting for it to arrive.

Overall, In Lieu of Flowers is a masterpiece that not only cements the legacy of the person behind this solo project, Dan Campbell, but also stands as a testament to the beauty music can offer.

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