71. Album Review of Ruined Castle by Kid Lightbulbs
Originally Published on December 4th
About the Artist
This is the segment of the review where I generally introduce the artist before digging into the analysis of their work. And I am going to do that. But first.
We Have to Talk About Radiohead
When I was in high school, I had heard of Radiohead. I had a couple sentences at the ready for talking points. “I like Paranoid Android,” I would say if they were ever brought up in conversation. But, I was into my Jars of Clay phase with aspirations of being a Youth Pastor. Music was just this thing I knew I was good at that everybody ELSE expected me to do. It was not a priority for me. It wasn’t until; in my quest to get to know this girl I was interested in, I bought OK Computer in the summer of 2000, that my attention would be reallocated to Radiohead. It was actually on the way home from a youth trip. I had just bought it at a music store when we stopped at a mall for lunch. I popped my brand new CD into my CD player, I threw on my headphones, and hit play. I was in love. Until I hit Let Down. Then I was transformed. I listened to Let Down on repeat all the way back to Nashville.
That was the beginning of a 25 year relationship with Radiohead’s music that has been one of the most influential parts of my life. To this day, I still classify them as my favorite band, though it’s been 8 years since they’ve released any music. I have heard bands and other musicians try (and fail) to achieve the unique approach to music that they have. I’ve never heard anybody get close. Admittedly, I’ve hoped to harness the genius they produce into my own music. I, too, have repeatedly fallen short. Most recently, my album Denouement was heavily influenced by Radiohead. It does not translate though. It never does.
Now.
About the Artist (Really this time)
I’ve heard one person in my entire life that thought similarly to Thom Yorke. He was the lead singer of a band I was in called Volvalis. He suffered from bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and multiple personality disorder (more recently referred to as DID or dissociative identity disorder). These disorders were sadly the reason our band broke up but man, this guy was a genius. I didn’t understand how he thought to incorporate notes and beats in the places he did. The musical style was not at all comparable to Radiohead, but he had several instances where he was nearly as brilliant. Until very (stomp,stomp) recently, I haven’t heard anybody else come as close. And then, I listened to Ruined Castle.
Kid Lightbulbs, like many of us, is a person who found that life’s journey momentarily took him away from a musical upbringing. From Massachusetts, he grew up playing the classical piano. He even won awards for doing so. As he aged into adolescence, he began teaching himself to play additional instruments like the bass, the guitar, and even horns. He was so inspired by music, he even studied music in college and received a degree in music theory and composition.
After playing bass for the band who would later become Earthside, he hung it up.
Kid Lightbulbs, aka Brandon Lucas Green, dawned new titles: Husband, Father. He accepted new roles: working in tech, taking care of ill family members, quarantining during a global pandemic. In all of these experiences, his musical roots were calling him back and back he would come!
In December of 2023, Kid Lightbulbs would make his stellar return to music by releasing his debut album, Throw Myself Into the Bay, a 13-song, 45 minute masterpiece. Then, in June of 2024, he would release his second album in six months; Step Into the Ocean, a 13-song, 54 minute follow-up to his debut!
As if that wasn’t impressive enough, Kid Lightbulbs is geared to release his THIRD full-length album in a single calendar year this Friday, December 6th! Already with two released singles; hope inside my baby's heart and don't wait, he’s showing no signs of stopping. No signs of slowing down. He’s sending a message to the world that says, “We could be doing more!”
About the Album
Ruined Castle is a 10-song LP by Kid Lightbulbs that releases on December 6th, 2024. With a runtime of just over 51 minutes, it features Kid Lightbulbs on vocals, piano, keyboards and synths, percussion and programming, guitars, bass, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a kazoo or something like that in there too. He also engineered and produced the album.
About the Music
Ruined Castle opens with the song “belong 2.” The song starts with a piano line that has a running staccato bass-hand line and syncopated chords being played with the treble-hand. Kid Lightbulbs follow shortly after the introduction with a programmed beat. The feel of the song is a progressive build, as a synthetic bass with a sort of fuzz effect follows the first portion of the verse.
As the second verse comes in, the vocals do a sort of “call and repeat” round between melody and harmony. The chorus is permormed in a more traditional round with the bass scaling down with the vocals. Melodically, this is an incredibly pleasing effect and adds such a strong element to the build, moving from a sampled loop feel to a more organic performance.
The song comes to a break where a bass riff reintroduces the song with a compelling musical interlude. The song quickly transitions into the second verse having introduced these additional sounds that fill in the empty space around the accompaniment. Subtly, synthetic strings begin to creep into the background of the song and the continue to build to a very exciting and dynamic climax of the song. Overall, this performance had a very similar feel to Thom Yorker’s album, The Eraser. The programmed beats were so unanticipated in a way that makes them work but only he can do it. It’s like somebody told Kid Lightbulbs that “you can’t fit a square peg in a round hole,” and he responded by saying “watch me.” Then he did it. Brilliantly.
The second track is the released single of “Hope inside my baby’s heart.” The standout performance in this is the autotuned vocal performance that really gives the vocal melody an instrumental feel. It makes me think of The Sun's Gone Dim and the Sky's Turned Black by Jóhann Jóhannsson.
Kid Lightbulbs channels a different Thom Yorke album with “Sun Loop/Bay Reprise,” in how the song transitions. Opening with a very complex and intricate beat, a guitar doing a simple rhiff between the cracks, and a moving bass line that could stand entirely on its own, his vocals come in as a sort of dynamic whisper as if to say, “Pay attention!” Like “belong 2,” this song builds off of itself, adding piano, a fuzzy and more complicated guitar, detailing more percussion the whole way. A synth adds to the climax of the first portion really filling the full space of sound, then transitions right into a subtle simple new part of the song. Much like Yorke’s album ANIMA and more specifically, the song Twist, the transition is so interesting in that both parts can stand on their own and also complement one another incredibly well.
The musicality of this album is so advanced and so expertly done, I almost feel out of place reviewing or analyzing it. It’s like me critiquing LeBron James on the beat way to hit a jumper.
I typically do a lyrical analysis here but I think it is unnecessary for this album because it’s not what I take away from the album. The musicality is so complex, dynamic, and profound, I truly struggle to focus on the lyrical content. After several listens, I find that every single time, I am hearing a new musical element that is distracting me from any attempt to analyze the songs lyrically. The lyrics are great in the capacity for which they serve but are completely overshadowed by a musical composition that is done so well, it’s difficult to focus on anything else.
Final Thoughts
Listening to Ruined Castle is already so impressive. Before the realization of the added detail that this is Kid Lightbulbs’ third full length album release in a calendar year. Then it’s just insane. Nearly three hours of completed music and it’s all extraordinary. Frankly, not to discredit the previous releases, but Ruined Castle is the best of them all (in my personal opinion). There is significant growth in the depth of the performance of this album. It is more complex. It is more experimental. It is almost recklessly unique in a way that he is convinced he can follow all the rules, then break them, and finally rewrite them.
I love hearing different ideas. New ideas. I love when a musician challenges themselves to innovate practical theory. Kid Lightbulbs has done this and he’s done it well.
Ruined Castle releases everywhere on December 6th, 2024. You do not want to miss this fantastic album! Make sure you are pressing play on Friday!
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