Music Review: Lost in the Trees

Lost in the Trees
Past Life
???1/2
Alt Rock

Ari Picker, leader of Lost in the Trees, is a virtuoso at beautifully weaving his sad and tragic past into his band’s varying shades of majestic music. In the band’s third LP, Past Life, Picker and crew interject vulnerable sentiment similar to previous albums, but this time with a different, progressive lens.

The band’s previous record, the enthralling A Church That Fits Our Needs, served as a bittersweet tribute to Picker’s deceased mother who took who her own life shortly after Picker’s wedding years ago. Past Life carries the same weight, but instead of pure and heartfelt reflection, the classically trained Picker substitutes orchestra strings for more upbeat drums and electric guitars to mold Picker’s transition of moving on with the memory of the past still vibrantly presence.

Lost in the Trees’ emotion is still there with haunting harmonies in “Excos” and “Rites,” opening up a misty transitional space for the album to meditate on a previous life while contemplating a potential afterlife. But the band’s mood is different this time. The graceful “Lady in White” is led by a soft piano but is introduced with a matching drum machine. Picker’s emotion will suck listeners in but coupled with the album’s almost dance-like rhythm can at times seem incongruent. While Picker’s elegance is always warming, Past Life does not carry this warmth as seamlessly as previous works.

Nevertheless, songs like the title track, the lilting and ambient “Glass Har,” and the optimistic “Sun” bring a revered symmetry to the album’s journey of what Picker has called “two souls or two beings chasing each other through different lives,” as seen on the album’s cover art.

Past Life is a step to the side from Lost in the Trees history rooted in grieving celebration. It welcomes all that comes with such a sentimental background, but is willing to explore new territory, and new emotions.

— Charlie Shelton