Attraction, toxicity, and self-love are all tactfully discussed with a backdrop of immersive pop-rock beats in Lucia & The Best Boys’ inventive debut album, Burning Castle.
Glasgow-based Lucia & The Best Boys, a three-person band fronted by Lucia Fairfull, have triumphed with their debut album. Their new and vibrant alternative rock sound with echoes of 90s dance pop effectively combines elements of both genres to create an emotional and energetic experience. Burning Castles chronicles the tensions of a relationship, from the initial feelings of infatuation to finally letting go of an unhealthy relationship. The 11-song album features previously released singles such as ‘So Sweet I Could Die’, ‘When You Dress Up’ and title track ‘Burning Castles’, all set against intense and inventive instrumentals elevating the band to a new territory of pop music that is all their own.
There is only one song clean of the impurities of an unsuccessful relationship: the opening song, ‘Butterflies’ focuses on the beginning excitement of a new relationship. It’s a successful opener to the album, strongly featuring Fairfull’s voice as assured and measured, annunciating the lyrics as the music rises to the high-pitched synthetic sounds of the chorus. The potency of both Fairfull’s voice and the instrumentals sets a tone for the rest of the album: not necessarily a tone of adoration, but instead one of fervour.
The album progresses along a neat story arc after the initial daydreamy song, which makes the case for it to be listened to chronologically. The next three songs all acknowledge staying in relationships despite the familiar signs of incompatibility and toxicity. ‘When You Dress Up’ details a partner’s wandering eye and terse compliments; Fairfull detailed in Wonderland magazine that she wrote the song about dispelling the male gaze and other people’s expectations for her. Her breathy singing of the chorus alludes to pop stars such as Lana Del Ray and Lorde but the song has rock and roll aspects and Fairfull’s grit is demonstrated when she repeats the line: “I’ll show you what I’m made of,” posing some unknown, but convincing, threat. It’s at this point in the album when it becomes clear this isn’t the fairy tale love story that ‘Butterflies’ alluded to.
‘So Sweet I Could Die’ builds on the tension of the previous tracks, a near plea begging for a love interest to leave despite an obvious attraction to them, utilising bass synths to underscore the tumultuous emotions. Fairfull’s tonal shift into ‘Angels Cry Too’, where she addresses a person in a one-sided relationship oblivious to the other person’s secret suffering, marks a turning point in the album’s exploration of uneven dynamics. Five tracks into the album is when it serves its greatest punch though when Fairfull sings against synthesiser beats in ‘Care’: ‘You’ve been filling me up, faithless love,’ displaying the raw emotion of someone finally seeing their relationship clearly. The second half of the record begins to grieve a relationship, with songs like ‘Love Yourself’ addressing someone struggling. This track is where I think the album loses its flow a bit though; it’s one of the slower songs of the album with more obvious lyrics but is still far from acoustic. The end of the song begins to re-grab attention, though, as the album then moves into its triumphant title track.
I believe ‘Burning Castles’ is the most irrevocably compelling song on the album. Ultimately, the entire record is about resilience through difficult emotional experiences and that’s what this song demonstrates: ‘I’ll see you again when I’m shiny and new… I don’t want to believe nothing is what it seems.’ Fairfull explained in Wonderland. that the track is meant to evoke the physical experience you have when you hear difficult news; however, the sounds of the song do not necessarily mirror these emotions as the lead singer’s voice feels more effervescent than devastating. Of this, Fairfull said ‘I love making something sound soft and graceful when the meaning and the experience that I’m writing about is pretty much the opposite. That sort of juxtaposition of the music and the lyrics is something that I’m prone to doing but I think that it always manages to capture the way that I feel in a way that makes sense to me.’ This approach is demonstrated throughout the whole album, not just the title track. In songs such as ‘Hurt Somebody You Love’ and ‘Haunt You Back,’ Lucia & The Best Boys successfully combine contrasting pop and rock elements in the same way they interplay dance beats and difficult emotions. One of the most fun and expressive songs on the album is ‘Haunt You Back,’ where Fairfull’s voice effectively echoes the message of the song. Disco-esque synthetic beats back the lyrics ‘I’m sorry to say the best in you was the worst in me / I know I’ll be better when you’re not around.’ Throughout the whole record, the songs create hope through their heartbreak whilst also being creatively inventive to achieve a simultaneously enjoyable and emotional listen.
‘Waiting On You Now’ solidifies this hope as the ballad of the album, opening with a piano before introducing choral-sounding strings. This is similar to ‘Love Yourself,’ begging someone to retain hope in their despair. However, this track feels more effective than ‘Love Yourself’ with the decisive use of instruments and vocals. ‘Favourite Thing to Lose’ ends the album on a definite high note: it reuses some of its previous upbeat synthetic sounds and dance beats. It’s fast-paced, almost as if it could be the backing track to the end of a high-stakes romantic comedy while evoking similar potent emotions of hurt and defiance that songs like ‘Care’ do. However, in this final track, Burning Castle reaffirms its outlook on heartbreak which is that the only way out is through. This song should be added to everyone’s break-up playlist or running mix – or both.
In essence, this album is entertaining and evocative, with sometimes only the tone of Fairfull’s voice giving away the latent emotions of the lyrics. Compared to the first of their four EPs, which was released in 2017, Lucia & The Best Boys have established themselves more as inventive pop-rock than alternative indie-rock, paralleling themselves to bands like American Indie pop band MUNA. Fairfull herself has also more assuredly harnessed her vocal abilities, evoking strength and range similar to pop icons such as Lady Gaga, better showcasing her vocal prowess while creating a compelling sonic and lyrical experience. What is most successful about Burning Castles as a whole is that Lucia & The Best Boys create a new and riveting sound by utilising their effective lyricism and unique meshing of genres.