Devin TownsendLightwork

The COVID pandemic brought out the existentialist in many of us as we lived through a time of genuine global fear and uncertainty.

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Already one of music’s deepest thinkers, Devin Townsend’s latest work is an album of personal exploration and introspection – a typical theme for him, but here he questions his place in the zeitgeist as a 50-year old creative artist in a forever-changed world.

Like most of his best, Lightwork is an album that reveals more and more of itself both as it unfolds and during subsequent listens. Textures and styles overlap, melodies and ideas fold over and into each other and songs take on different meanings whether one considers the lyrics as impressionist poetry or random stream-of-consciousness. Martial marching beats and sub-industrial pop leer into dissonance and stagger against dream-pop, subtle guitar melodies, metallic fury and bursts of explosive melodrama. Songs build upon deep layers of synths, orchestrations and multi-part vocal harmonies as Lightwork plays out as a weird journey through ric, sophisticated pop.

After more than 25 years Devin Townsend remains an artist of astounding vision, creative depth and powerful emotion and Lightwork proudly takes a place beside his most evocative and honest work.

Into the second half and Lightwork takes a dark and heavier turn as Dimensions maps out territory furious and confounding. Celestial Signals ratchets up the symphonic metal elements before Vacation ushers in a slight return of some gorgeous pop with an intro that evokes distant echoes of James Taylor or early Eagles. The rest of the album is taken up by the gigantic Children of God’s immense layering of choirs, keys and guitar textures that is all at once astonishing and bewildering as Townsend charts his way out of confusion, the cry of a foghorn helping navigate the dark waters of his psyche to a place of comfort and safety. Even with Gggarth sharing production duties, there is no dilution of Townsend’s trademark style. After more than 25 years Devin Townsend remains an artist of astounding vision, creative depth and powerful emotion and Lightwork proudly takes a place beside his most evocative and honest work.

STANDOUT TRACKS: Call of the Void, Dimensions, Heavy Burden
STICK THIS NEXT TO: Anathema, The Gathering, The Devin Townsend Project