Dev Hynes and his alter-ego Lightspeed Champion have been away for a few years. With time, he has grown from childhood comic book hero into a folk-fuelled Raconteur. Space cadet ZOE TURTON takes a look at Lightspeed Champion’s second album as he comes back down to Earth…
Lightspeed Champion – Life is Sweet! Nice to Meet You
Released 15/2/10
(Domino)
Dev Hynes has issues. Some people will have listened to his debut album ‘Falling off the Lavender bridge’ under the ‘Lightspeed’ guise and told him to loosen up, put his guitar down and stop moaning. Love, life, and everything in between seemed to be a sore point. Though many other people will have been thankful he moved away from the thrashing noise of Test Icicles to pursue his love of writing sweet charming melodies. And he seriously does love it.
He’s written several albums and this latest effort is just one of those that he decided to release in a generic format, whereas there’s always new material popping up under different pseudonyms online. This relentless song writing pays off though as this album is ridiculously easy to fall in love with.
He might be moaning again but sometimes, in fact most the time we all do; and he does it with such charming turn of phrase it’s easy to relate to. On epic love story ‘Middle Of The Dark’, which is a one of the tracks that shines, there’s an obvious self-awareness which only endears the listener to him more, with lyrics such as ‘Say you love me, I will oblige… I’ve loosened up and tried my best’. Live favourite ‘Madame Van Damme’ is another highlight as Dev swoons ‘Baby won’t you kill me’ as if it’s a lullaby. Give this utterly charming album a chance and most people will find that life is indeed sweet!
Zoe Turton
Tags: domino, lightspeed champion
