Vide Noir (song rankings)

Hey!

I'm back at my usual antics and wanted to talk about one of my favorite albums, Vide Noir by Lord Huron. Vide noir, interestingly enough, is one of the lower ranked albums on the Album of the year website, (which I think is a little bit of an injustice) but I thought, well let me do my own ranking here!

I don't see lord Huron talked about a lot on here so I'mma be one of the first!
Also wanna preface this by saying all the songs in here go hard, some more than others, but they all are worth a listen!
Anyways lets get into it!

(Quick note, all art provided here is my own! You can see more of it on my Twitter or Tumblr)

12. Moonbeam

Moonbeam, while an interesting change up near to the end of the album, feels a little out of left field considering the general tone for the album. For those not aware, this album follows a character named Buck Vernon as he searches for his fiancée, and later finds himself in the middle of a drug ring. And this song kinda throws off the progression of the story as Buck possibly has romantic interest in another person. As for the actual sound, while it's not bad, its not my favorite sounding track, the middle and lower notes feel kinda shallow and flat to me, and I often find myself kinda hoping for the track to finish to listen to the next. I do love the higher notes in this one however and it does make this into a very unique sounding track.

11. Wait by the river

Wait by the river is a slower song from the album, and while good in it's own right, isn't my favorite, just in the fact that its over shadowed by the next track in the album (which I will get into later). One minor thing I do not like about the song is the strange sounding harp(??) at the beginning and end that just makes my brain not happy lol.

10. When the Night is over

When the night is over is a great song, I personally love the instrumentals in this, the bass with the drums sets a low mood, while the mixture of guitars, saxophone, violin, and cello work really well in a surprising harmony, plus the bridge instrumentals *chef's kiss*. I only feel like the lyrics bring this down, while Ben schneider is a fantastic singer some of the lyrics are hard to hear over the music (especially near the end), but that is my only real gripe with the song.

9. Back from the edge

(Now we are getting into some highlights that are really hard to rank lol)

Back from the edge is fantastic, its not afraid to be creative in it's lyrics and instrumentals, this one is a strong on to recommend to a first time listener because of it's grounding bass/drums to the ethereal high notes. It showcases the band's range really well and the story behind this one fits perfectly with the vibe of the album.
(as well as that it was one of my favorite pieces to draw)

8. Lost in time and space

I'm going to be honest, on my first listen of Lost in Time and Space, I was not a fan, to me it was a weird intro to the album and I looked over it for a long time, but then I got the vinyl for Vide noir and I really listened to it. It sounded amazing on vinyl and I really understood why they started the album with this, its a very ethereal sounding track that focuses on wandering the cosmos rather than earth, and also explains the drug (also aptly titled Vide Noir) and it's effects. The end of the track will give you goosebumps for a while after it's run time and connects the album together.

7. Balancer's eye

Balancer's eye is a banger, with the guitar rifts that are balanced (pun intended) well with the drums, this one wants to make you get up and dance in a club the whole way through. The lyrics are a little darker as well but you wouldn't even notice unless you were focusing on only the lyrics because of how the song sounds which is something I love personally.

6. Ancient names (part ii)

THIS SONG IS THE REASON YOU NEED TO BE CAREFUL LISTENING TO LORD HURON ON SHUFFLE!!!
A continuation of Ancient Names (Part i) this one launches right into a loud sounding and shouty song, which is a very fun one at that. Being the shortest song on the album at 2 minutes and five seconds as well is like a quick wake up that gets you pumped for the rest of the album.

5. Never Ever

Never ever is the second track on the album and is a major mood change from Lost in time and Space with heavy guitar riffs and a banger drum backing. This also launches the story of Buck and his goal to find his lover really well, showing his emotions really well in the lyrics, but also hints at some of Buck's own psyche. This song is really good to belt out the lyrics to and I always find myself doing so.

4. Vide Noir

Vide noir is fantastic, its perfectly harmonious with low bass and high guitar and a spacey feel as it describes the effects and the user's of vide noir. Every time I listen to it I notice something new hidden in the background that works so well together that I would've never known it was there on the first listen. And the forth verses brings echoing sounds and lyrics that will make you feel lost, until bringing you right back into the chorus and straight to the ending wishing it was longer.

3. Emerald Star

(SPOILERS FOR VIDE NOIR ALBUM AND MOVIE (yes there is a movie))

Emerald star is a fantastic final track for a amazing album, and is the perfect ending for the story. I was debating if I could avoid spoilers for the album and by extension the movie, but I felt like I couldn't explain WHY it is an incredible track to end on without it. So the song starts off with Buck finding his lover and it's triumphant! He found her! His one love! He went through hell for her! however it quickly devolves, she never wanted him to find her, she was running away because she never felt the same way, he made up this narrative in his head, and suddenly that triumphant start now sounds like a hopeless one, the lyrics follow this as well, with Buck wondering if she ever even cared in the slightest. Followed after the lyrics end is the most soul crushing instrumental you'll ever hear, words could not begin to describe how the music in it sounds, it's a fantastic end to the album.

2. Ancient Names (Part i)

Ancient Names (part i) is a track that I always find myself going back to when I'm stressed. This one is a dancer, I always find myself bouncing my head to this one (even as I'm writing this lol), with music that perfectly works with the vocals, its also the longest track on the album with six minutes of music that will leave you thinking it was a lot shorter than what it was. The best way I can describe my love for this song is that I wanna just run along a train track to it, or go to a club that has it playing, its just one that works so well in the album and perfectly sets up the second part. (Just wish spotify ads would stop splitting parts 1 and 2 up EVERY DAMN TIME)

1. Secret of life

I FUCKING LOVE SECRET OF LIFE!!!!
This song is the one that overshadows wait by the river that I mentioned earlier. This the one song that you're like going on the town with the boys with. I loved this song so much I actually did two art pieces for it lmao. The lyrics work so well with the music and I always sing and bounce to this one, its the best feeling to listen to this one while doing almost anything. The instrumentals never fail to get me hyped and the effects to Ben's voice work well with everything in this track, THIS IS THE TRACK EVER!!!

Ok lmao, calming down from secret of life (which you should listen to NOW) this is my silly little list! Again like the Junji Ito stuff (which I've read a few more since then I'll have to check and see if my list still holds up) this was purely because I like doing this and was hard to rank some songs, especially towards the end there. I do plan to do Strange Trails eventually but I wanna do art for those songs as well, I have some thoughts about The night we met but we can get into that another time.

Anyways thats that, Kiwi OUT!