Bonny Doon - Let There Be Music [LP]

Throughout the ten tracks in their new album Let There Be Music, you can hear the spaciousness Bonny Doon allowed themselves since their 2018 sleeper cult-classic Longwave. Their latest musical journey is one that has big payoffs for devoted followers and undeniable rewards for anyone just stumbling across the band for the first time. After extensively touring Longwave by supporting Band of Horses, Snail Mail and Waxahatchee, Lennox and Colombo were invited by Katie Crutchfield to collaborate on Waxahatchee’s critically acclaimed album Saint Cloud. “The experience raised the ceiling on our imagination,” Colombo said.

Soon after, Colombo and Kmiecik, whose steady percussion and devotion to the songs creates a container for the indelible guitar lines, both entered a time of serious healing, Jake tending to complications of his Crohn’s disease and Bobby to a brain injury and undiagnosed Lyme disease. While these detours of doctors’ appointments and experimental care were taking place, the members of Bonny Doon were also playing on Waxahatachee’s Saint Cloud tour. These obstacles and commitments drew out the making of Let There Be Music for several additional years, and in the process, redefined the record as an achievement in perseverance for the band.

On their long-awaited third album, we get a glimpse into the pure joy of Bonny Doon. The album serves as less of one conceptual story, and each song as their own individual offerings of putting words to the ordinary experience of being alive. The band is at their most dynamic and the songwriting deftly explores new terrain. Let There Be Music is brimming with small truths - both profound and mundane, comforting and difficult - and we are invited to revel in them all.