If you have followed our coverage of Beat Radio then the story might sound all too familiar. We’ve discussed the realities of being a modern artist, coming to the conclusion that only a blend of quiet perseverance and an unquenchable need to create will ever allow musicians to survive the money-less, swamped music industry as it currently exists. Indeed, it was Sendrowitz who put us onto Heaven O’Clock, the result of Tim Lannen’s newfound fervour. The EP, existing as five average-length tracks, feels far more nourishing than your typical short release, the songs displaying admirable variety while remaining bound together by a common energy.

Opener ‘I’m a Solution’ feels like something of an introduction, a re-emergence, a tight melody rising out of a disorientating clatter as though Lannen is finally cutting through the confusing fog and finding his groove. “I feel like I should feel,” he sings in the opening verse. “I feel stranger than ever / I’m wandering tall weeds / I figure out falling”. ‘Same Light’ is more restrained musically, though the lyrics glow with the strange emotions of an important relationship, love and anger and pain brimming beneath the surface, never quite spilling.

“I see you trying
To tear out the pages
Ill throw you down a flight of stairs
Before you can finish

She made an impression on me
And all of it makes sense

I could never get enough

We wake up in the same light
And leave everything behind”

‘A Calm I Don’t Like’ pines for this turbulent passion, a song terrified of inaction, of drifting, of missing out on the highs and lows in favour of some bland median. Whether or not it’s his intention, it’s difficult to not apply the lyrics to Lannen’s musical story, the lines reading like the nostalgic thoughts of some sleepless early-night, the lack of tiredness and disappointment not enough to quell the desire to create, to get out and play. ‘Feel Song’ is an electronic-tinged follow-up, wistful but all the stronger for it. “Do you remember how I made you feel?” Lannen sings over and over, perhaps to himself.

Closer ‘Vein In Train’ bounces along with a garage rock clatter, Lannen vocals growling and soaring behind the raucous percussion. “I wanna scream,” he sings/shouts, “when I don’t see the train coming.” From here the song enters a mellow groove, the instrumentation paring back just so, allowing the wistful hope to appear again. Though from these words Lannen seems to draw energy, because he launches back into boisterous, confident noise once more. Heaven O’Clock is an album about taking chances, about enduring the dips in order to ride the crests, and when the guitar takes over to kick it once more, you understand why. He wants to be in a band again.

“There can’t be anymore ‘one more times’
I forget how good it feels to feel alright”

You can buy Heaven O’Clock, Part 1 now from the Tim Lannen Bandcamp page.

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