During the making of Second Nature, the third and newest album by Lucius, the indie pop band centered around the unison vocals of Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, dark and heavy times were happening. There was, of course, the pandemic. And there was also the dissolution of Wolfe’s marriage to drummer Dan Molad. But, somehow, Second Nature didn’t turn out to be a record wholly devoted to downtempo songs about breakups and weighty, worldly topics. Yes, there are such songs on it—beautiful ones, to be sure. But the 2022 release is also bursting with plenty of sunny, super-upbeat, highly danceable tracks—numbers that the group will deliver with unbridled zeal when they appear with special guest Al Olender at Arrowood Farms on July 6.
“That kind of became our mantra when we were working on the album: ‘Dance through the darkness’,” says Wolfe via phone during a pre-summer tour vacation shared by her and Laessig’s families. “A lot of the songs have more movement, more of a rhythmic element. Since [during the lockdown] no one could really get outside, we really leaned into the concept once we figured out what it was going to be. But even some of the upbeat songs have lyrics that are a little more serious.” Indeed, the words to cheerful-sounding cuts like “Heartbursts,” “Next to Normal,” and the Sheryl Crow-guested single “Dance Around It” belie their bouncy frameworks. The disco-tinged album also features the poignant “The Man I’ll Never Find,” the first song that the two singer-songwriters have ever written with an outside composer (Nashville tunesmith Trent Dabbs).
Formed in Brooklyn circa 2007 by Berklee College of Music alums Wolfe and Laessig, Lucius debuted with 2009’s self-released Songs from the Bromley House. Molad, guitarist Peter Lalish, and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Burri (since departed) soon joined the lineup, which put out a self-titled EP in 2012 and saw song placements in “Grey’s Anatomy,” “New Girl,” “Catfish: The TV Show,” and other programs. The band broke through with 2013’s highly praised Wildewoman and shared bills with Tegan and Sara, Jack White, and others before releasing Good Grief in 2016. The latter album’s success led to Laessig and Wolfe’s being tapped to sing with Jackson Browne, My Morning Jacket, and Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, with whom they toured the world in 2017 and 2018.
“Working with Roger was really inspiring,” Wolfe says. “He’s so meticulous, and really got us to think about not wasting any time on stage: about making every moment count, and about the story you tell as a performer. When people come to see us play, I hope they can just feel some relief from whatever’s been stressing them out, some joy. It’s so powerful to be able to be present and let yourself be transported to another world.”
This article appears in July 2023.
