Grace Potter & The Nocturnals – The Lion the Beast the Beat (2012)
Seven years after the release of their self-made 2005 debut Nothing But the Water, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals take an exponential leap with the widescreen opus The Lion The Beast The Beat, the band’s fourth full-length album. With this musically combustible and conceptually dazzling work, the Vermont-based band forcefully takes its place alongside the best of its peers while building on the rich legacy of its inspirations.
The Lion The Beast The Beat was produced by Potter and veteran producer Jim Scott (Tom Petty, Wilco, the Tedeschi Trucks Band). Adding to the firepower of the project is Dan Auerbach who produced and co-wrote the track “Loneliest Soul” and also produced and co-wrote the band’s first single “Never Go Back,” and “Runaway,” both of…
…which were co-produced by Scott. David Campbell (Beck, My Morning Jacket, Jackson Browne) arranged and conducted the strings on the album.
The LP was mixed by fellow Vermonter and Grammy award winner Rich Costey (Foo Fighters, TV on the Radio, Bruce Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball). Alongside the band’s original guitarist/songwriter Scott Tournet, drummer/band co-founder Matt Burr, guitarist Benny Yurco (who joined in 2009), Potter commenced recording the album in October, 2011. They later invited multi-instrumentalist Michael Libramento (from Floating Action) to join them on the sessions.
Less a concept album than a panoramic sonic terrain across which various thematic vectors collide and combine, The Lion The Beast The Beat “plays on the duality of human nature, the fact that we all have our demons and we all have the ability to be good” Potter explains. “More than ever, I think outside perception affects how we view ourselves. I started thinking about these archetypes: everyone perceives a lion as a powerful, glorious animal and a beast as a flawed, scary, unpleasant creature, but that’s just on the outside. You only have to read a few children’s fables to see those themes: the ‘Cowardly Lion’ from The Wizard of Oz, the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, I’m fascinated by the idea that we all hold such a broad spectrum of impulses and how we choose to act on them makes us who we are.”
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