By Natalie Forster, Features Assignment Editor
Launching onto the scene in 2012, Lord Huron has been an under-the-radar driving force for indie-folk music. Inspired by Lake Huron, front-man Ben Schneider started Lord Huron as a solo project, increasingly adding members. Currently with four members, the group has started to gain success through television shows.
The band’s biggest hit, “The Night We Met,” was featured on Netflix’s original show “13 Reasons Why” in 2017. Taking place in two key scenes in the series, it quickly became the band’s most popular song. The song took the group from “nobodies” to artists with over five million views a month.
“The Night We Met” deals with falling for someone only to have their heart broken in the end and the feeling of wanting to go back to where it all began and remembering the good times. It talks about sticking through the good and bad times, whether it was worth it or not. The song empties listeners out until they have nothing left. Then, it hurts even more.
Part of the strong success of the song comes with the feelings it preys upon. The song makes music lovers vulnerable and Lord Huron shows people that it’s okay to be that way. The raw and soothing vocals calm those in times of trouble, as though Schneider is trying to mother listeners after their first true heartbreak. It’s a song to cry to, a song to reflect with, a song to remember.
Lord Huron’s beat is true to the indie-folk nature, similar to sounds from Mumford & Sons and The Head and the Heart. It’s haunting and eerie, yet strong enough to stand on its own. The beat remains soothing even when the lyrics can tear your heart apart.
“The Night We Met” is just one song of many off of their latest album, “Strange Trails,” that is worth listening to. Songs like “Fool for Love” and “Meet Me in the Woods” have also been released as singles and gained decent mainstream success.
Lord Huron’s newest release, “Wait by the River,” has a slow, captivating beat that draws listeners in as though they are in a slow-motion scene of a film. It’s the beat of first wedding dances and prom slow dances.
Schneider sings of mistakes he’s made and how life is not worth it without the person he loves by his side. He makes a promise to wait for his lover by the river until he dies, saying, “If we can’t be together, what’s the point of love?”
Just like before, Schneider’s voice is relaxing over a laid-back beat, as though he is Romeo serenading his Juliet from below a windowsill.
Lord Huron has not been around long, but the band has been gaining an increasingly strong following, mainly with college students across the country. Their words will continue to touch listeners’ souls in the most poetic way an artist can.
