Departure Lounge, Too Late to Die Young

By James Keller

Ambient, atmospheric backdrops put behind well-planned and perfectly executed melodies, peppered with ear-piercing subtle beats and mellow complementing lyrics. Add tracks with guitar-rock taking over, others with a blues feel, and you’ve only began to scratch the surface of Departure Lounge’s new record, Too Late To Die Young.

Armed with an array of instruments–over 25 between the four musicians–Departure Lounge takes over an indie scene dominated by harder, simpler guitar rock, even within their own Nettwerk label. While every song isn’t wholly unique to the music found outside of the Nashville band, it’s definitely refreshing, seeming to take hints from each genre, even back in time (“Tubular Belgians in my Goldfield” has an almost “Wish You Were Here” feeling to the music). Where the album ends up is definitely worth the journey.