Good Morning Bedlam - Lulu (2022)

Good Morning Bedlam is a name that fits the band, as evidenced again and again on their third album, Lulu. The trio specializes in a highly appealing form of controlled chaos, merging touching and tender passages with jittery jive that can sound like a speed freak on a bender. From their headquarters in Minneapolis, they have conjured up a set of songs that cover the musical landscape with a take no prisoners mentality, yet every note rings true.

Blasting out of the gate, “I Am Sad” sounds anything but, though scanning the lyrics, one gets the idea that words and music actually work hand in hand, creating moments incredibly special. The opening jolt of fiddle, bass and drums set the song on fire. By the time they sing “Love I want to separate/ No time to heal or hesitate”, it hits you that there’s an incredible rush to get out of this relationship. Yet there are portions of this song that slow down to an almost glacial pace. There’s simply no telling what will happen next.

As guitarist Isaak Elker explains, “I think this record is about learning to let life in, even when it is painful. Growth is not static, and it’s also not linear.” Neither are their songs; they twist and turn in the most delightfully unexpected ways. “Blue House” features the insistent bass of his wife, Torie, and Sophia Mae Beyer on fiddle. Out of nowhere, they pull out a closing section where the three sing a “dah, dah, dah” chorus before peeling back to just Isaak singing that is pure gold.

Throughout the album, you are left to wonder what will happen next, and invariably you tend to be delightfully wrong. Guitar and plucked violin open “The Haunting,” sounding anything but haunted. When the drums come in before the song strips back for a moment to just guitar, you begin to realize just how much time and effort they have put into making an album that defies the expected while maintaining fairly standard forms.

On “Salt”, Tori Elker goes from singing with unbridled abandon to soft and quietly contained within a beat, emphasizing how these songs reflect many of the same emotions that we feel at any particular time. The seven minutes of closing track, “Lulu”, is a study in how they build songs to create something most unusual. Sophia explains, “The title track “Lulu” is a song about breaking up with an old black and white dream of the future, in order to see the present in full color.” The song itself goes from an arrangement with a complete string section, then cuts back to a single piano.

Everywhere you look on Lulu, what you get is not what you expect, yet it all seems to fit together perfectly, creating a whole that deals with musical forms in ways you’d never expect. Good Morning Bedlam’s Lulu is most definitely chaotic, it’s also as good as anything you’re likely to hear this year or any year.