Superhuman Heart

Album Review

The duo of Mark Reveley and Emma Lucia make music under the name Jed and Lucia and together they cook up a heavily sedated, laid-back-to-the-point-of-paralysis mixture of beardy folk guitars and vocal harmonies, with drifting electronic textures and dinky drum machines that straddles the fine line between indie folk introspection and bedroom electronic experiments. Superhuman Heart is their second album, and it’s a bit of an under-the-radar gem. Definitely not the kind of record to grab you by the collar and demand your attention, it’s more of a creeper that slowly insinuates itself into your head as it plays on. The duo wrap their fragile voices around slight but effective melodies and bathe them in waves of electronic hum and echoes that surround you with a feeling of warmth. The tempo of the songs never goes above a shuffle and the volume is determinedly low; they create a perfectly comfortable mood from the beginning and never deviate. While that can lead to a monotonous listen in the wrong hands, Reveley and Lucia take pains to add so many layers to the songs, you can’t help but be drawn in. The quiet mystery of the vocals also draws you in closely; Lucia especially has the kind of voice that sounds perfect weaving its way through a dream hop soundscape or emoting tenderly on a folky ballad (like the sweetly insistent "On Lockdown"). There are also a couple of songs that shift the relaxed mood just enough to add some intensity and drama to the album, especially the surging, cinematic “Circle of Stone” and the almost danceable “The Park.” Like a low-key version of Koushik or a calm Caribou, Jed and Lucia create magic out of elements that really have no right being melded together. If you’re lucky enough to hear it, Superhuman Heart will be the perfect soundtrack to your lazy autumn days and peaceful-anytime nights.