The Lone Bellow: Then Came the Morning

Lee Zimmerman on January 23, 2015

So what do you do for a follow-up when your eponymous debut is hailed as perhaps last year’s best Americana entry? Hopefully, you take a lesson from The Lone Bellow and produce a sophomore set that’s every bit as brilliant. Like its predecessor, it captures the communal vibe and sweeping, soul-stirring harmonies that found them so exhilarating and expressive on first encounter. Like before, its songs veer from an adrenaline rush to a cause for contemplation. While “Heaven Don’t Call Me Home” and “Cold As It Is” seem destined to become concert favorites, with their whoops, claps and shout-outs, those entries that take time to ignite—“Call To War,” “Then Came the Morning” and “Take My Love” specifically—summon up a gospellike fervor through their sheer drive and determination. Cerebral and celebratory in equal measures, Then Came the Morning provides the much hoped-for return.

Artist: The Lone Bellow
Album: Then Came the Morning
Label: Descendant