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Art-Rock Rock Singles

Lyle’s second single doesn’t reach as high as “Get Me”

Release date: January 27th, 2019

Dan Ray February 6, 2019
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Lyle’s second single doesn’t reach as high as “Get Me” February 6, 2019

Raised by a single mother in the suburbs of Detroit, Dan discovered an early passion for singing, songwriting, and the arts as a whole. She got her BA in English and music at the University of Michigan, where she reported for the school’s paper, The Michigan Daily. She worked as a Senior News Reporter on the government beat, transitioned to arts writing, and eventually became the managing editor of the social media department. She moved to Seattle in 2017. After losing her job during the COVID-19 pandemic and discouraged about the lack of press surrounding Seattle’s music scene, Dan made the decision to turn Dan’s Tunes, a fully fledged music journalism website focused on showcasing the Seattle area’s musicians, into its own startup. There’s so much music happening in the city that spawned Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Jimi Hendrix — among others — and Dan’s Tunes is determined to find and expose those outstanding acts. The goal is to have satellites in every major US city, uplifting diverse and compelling voices and helping music communities thrive. In 2020, Dan was featured in the Seattle Times’s year-end music critic poll. Other than her musical endeavors (singing, playing ukulele, and auditioning for American Idol four times before the age of 24) Ray is passionate about food and education around the American food system, and she’s also a large proponent of eliminating the stigma around mental health. Ray loves cats, especially her own, who is named Macaulay Culkin (but she’s a lady).

Photo courtesy of Lyle

Lyle — a newish, art-rock seven-piece consisting of vocalist and guitarist Arthur James, vocalist and guitarist Lana McMullen, vocalist and keyboardist Leah Tousignant, bassist Nathaniel Peden, drummer Matt Price, violinist Natalie Gray, and cellist Phil Hirschi — released their debut single, “Get Me,” in October 2018 to rave reviews. “Get Me” is a track of swelling melodies and beautifully harmonized vocal parts that elicits an undeniable feeling of hope.

The band’s latest single, “Believe in the Dark,” follows a similar musical pattern as “Get Me,” with rising symphonic lines and vocals from Arthur, McMullen, and Tousignant weaving in and out of one another, but it doesn’t pack the same punch as “Get Me.” Whereas “Get Me” feels like a harmonious surge, “Believe in the Dark” sounds more like the track recorded at the end of the day when everybody needs a snack — it’s not poorly written, but it just doesn’t sound as on-the-nose as the musicians of Lyle have proven they can be.

Arthur takes the lead vocals on this tune, and, while he does have a notably low register, at times it sounds like he’s reaching for — or just not putting his all into — those lower notes, and it detracts from the overall vocal. McMullen and Tousignant fill out the harmonies with a choral-like overlapping pattern towards the end of the track, and their vocals, too, sound just a little too throaty, again, like it’s been a long day of recording and they’re giving it all they’ve got, but there’s just not that much left to give.

Worth noting, though, is Gray’s impeccable attention to detail in her violin playing. The strings carry this track, without a doubt, which plays into Lyle’s classification as a collaborative, as opposed to a band with a frontperson. You can hear every resonation of the strings, every movement of the bow, and the heart inside of it.

“Believe in the Dark” is a fine tune, but it is perhaps an odd choice for a single, given its similarities to “Get Me” and the slight disconnect — it just doesn’t hit as hard. As a seventh or eighth track on an album, it would be a showstopper, but, as a single, it doesn’t draw me into the band.

Believe in the Dark

Believe in the Dark
7.6

Instrumentation

 8.0/10

Vocals

 7.5/10

Swell

 7.5/10

Production

 8.0/10

Story

 7.0/10

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Raised by a single mother in the suburbs of Detroit, Dan discovered an early passion for singing, songwriting, and the arts as a whole. She got her BA in English and music at the University of Michigan, where she reported for the school’s paper, The Michigan Daily. She worked as a Senior News Reporter on the government beat, transitioned to arts writing, and eventually became the managing editor of the social media department. She moved to Seattle in 2017. After losing her job during the COVID-19 pandemic and discouraged about the lack of press surrounding Seattle’s music scene, Dan made the decision to turn Dan’s Tunes, a fully fledged music journalism website focused on showcasing the Seattle area’s musicians, into its own startup. There’s so much music happening in the city that spawned Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Jimi Hendrix — among others — and Dan’s Tunes is determined to find and expose those outstanding acts. The goal is to have satellites in every major US city, uplifting diverse and compelling voices and helping music communities thrive. In 2020, Dan was featured in the Seattle Times’s year-end music critic poll. Other than her musical endeavors (singing, playing ukulele, and auditioning for American Idol four times before the age of 24) Ray is passionate about food and education around the American food system, and she’s also a large proponent of eliminating the stigma around mental health. Ray loves cats, especially her own, who is named Macaulay Culkin (but she’s a lady).