2014 is already looking good for Lantern. The band is headed back into the studio this week to record the follow-up to last year’s release, Rock ‘N’ Roll Rorschach. The blues/70’s rock-inspired album was a departure from grittier, lo-fi Lantern recordings of yore – tightened up, but by no means tidy. Rorschach’s take on the American rock tradition is at once groovy but not vapid, sultry and meaningfully layered, loud and thrashy. Alchemy like that can’t possibly be an accident, but the tone of the LP is too no-fuss to let you dwell on it. For their next album, Zachary Devereux Fairbrother and Emily Robb are teaming up once again with Montreal-based drummer Christian Simmons to take it a step further. In addition to experimenting with different instrumentation, the group’s newfound obsession with 60’s and 70’s Brit rock is sure to translate. “It all started because our drummer Christian lent us a couple of books by the engineers that worked on most of the Beatles catalogue. Now we can’t stop listening,” said Robb. An evolving cross-genre rock ‘n’ roll outfit with a thoughtful, more technical eye on what’s next? Yeah, we’re in. (You can view the rest of The Deli Philly’s Best of 2013 Emerging Artists list HERE.) – Leslie Burnette
