Your Image Stains My Mind

Fog Lake “Side Effects”

The first half of Fog Lake’s Dragonchaser is a pleasant, spacey haze – acoustic guitars jangling in icy reverb, with an androgynous voice murmuring lyrics that strongly suggest the name of the record isn’t some D&D thing. But a bit over halfway through the record, everything perks up considerably. The guitar gets a bit jauntier, the vocals are much more clear, the melodies are stronger, the recording sounds more deliberate and professional. And the lyrics follow suit, shifting perspective from a hazy, numb moment to looking back on “the days we lost.” It’s a powerful musical and thematic shift, but taken out of context record’s two centerpiece songs “Medicine Road” and “Side Effects” work as discrete expressions of melancholy and regret. Both songs are about missing an intimate connection with someone they had to get away from, but I think the latter is particularly good at contrasting nostalgia and affection with memories of pain and despair.

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