Lord Jane – The Lifting of the Fog (2025)
Lord Jane is a kind of Ulster supergroup, as its members hail from other Northern Ireland bands (including Mob Wife, Wohn, Ferals, and Big Daisy) to form what is one of the gems of the Belfast music scene. This five-piece unit, comprised of lead singer Clodágh May, guitarists Sam Foote and Aidan Reynolds, bassist Carl Small, and drummer Dylan Norton, strikes a deal between tough alternative rock and sensitive storytelling.
Their recent EP, The Lifting of the Fog, expands the funky, popish buoyancy of last year’s Tulips not by building up but by digging down for a deeper foundation. Everything, from May’s storytelling to Foote and Reynolds’ delicate guitar parts to Small and Norton’s tight rhythmic pulse, tells of a band that has been playing live and doing their homework.
‘All I Know’ opens the EP with what may be the beginning of the fog lifting as May sings of waking up to a series of realisations, while Foote and Reynolds weave their guitar riffs together over the pulsing engine room work of Small and Norton. There’s a kind of musical hierarchy apparent from the beginning. Bass and drums hold down the rhythmic bones of the song with Small hinting at the melodic riffs from the guitars, which, in turn, interact with May’s melodies riding high over it all. All put together, they create a music that is accessible and inventive, delicate and energetic.
On ‘These Last Few Weeks’, the EP gets its title as the singer describes a period of detachment, searching for the person she was, but dreading “the lifting of the fog.” After these songs of struggling for perspective, ‘Banmharu’ has a startling and uncomfortable sense of prescience as May hangs the danger for women lurking in the city at night on the murder of a woman by her own son. “In the back of my mind, the whole world is scary/ Cause I’m seeing the man who might want me dead.” As the melody rises and falls over the quiet, beautiful guitar work, one hears not just the facts of violence against women but the images, sounds, and feelings of daily suffering from this kind of vulnerability. With its stark contrast of gentleness and harsh reality, ‘Banmharu’ is easily the best song of the four.
‘Kaleidoscopes’ closes down the EP with a burning riff and ironic turn on the value of perspective. As everything around the singer fractures into pieces, she sings, “How I wish I had kaleidoscopes for eyes/ So I could see the bright side of societal demise.” Four tracks, between three and three and a half minutes long, convey the numbness of hiding from the world and the reasons why it’s tempting to keep the fog pulled down over your head.
Lord Jane is a fantastic band. They have built a solid foundation of musical and lyrical storytelling with a tough-minded energy, and I am more than idly curious what this band will do next.
Find out more about Lord Jane on their Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Spotify.
This artist was sent to us by Jawdropper Music.
