Goodbye Kanan EP (2021)
For now, this is where the road ends. Goodbye Kanan is the most recent new music Lifehouse has given us, five years old and counting, and it plays like a band using the shorter EP format as license to experiment, throwing genre after genre at the wall to see what sticks. Some of it is thrilling, some of it strays close to unrecognizable, but as a possible final statement, it’s a fascinating and often beautiful one.
It opens on its strongest foot. Cut & Run was the most recent single we’ve gotten, and it doesn’t disappoint, Bryce’s bass has never been so prevalent or upfront, thumping and driving with a real Tom Petty Runnin’ Down a Dream build to it. It feels fresh, powerful, full of dynamics and push-and-pull, and it’s the best thing on the EP. From there the record scatters in every direction. Dragonflies leans dramatic and psychedelic, all piano chords and strings, clearly drawing from Jason Wade’s side project ØZWALD. Nothing in the band’s catalog sounds like it, which is to its credit, though it may venture so far that it stops feeling recognizably Lifehouse. If dreamy psych is your thing, it’ll tick every box, but it edges just past what makes this band timeless.
The middle keeps chasing new sounds with mixed results. Static reaches back toward a more Lifehouse feel than Dragonflies did, but through sweeping, soaring, production-heavy synths that land closer to 2010s atmospheric electro-indie, something like M83. It’s once again unlike anything in their catalog, which deserves applause, and this time the landing is closer to stuck. En Rogue swings toward 90s British rock, stadium-sized and grungy, with a megaphone filter on the vocals and thumping floor toms, a little Oasis in its DNA. Chester Copperpot goes somewhere else entirely, a Cage the Elephant-style cut that’s upbeat rather than spacious, built on 60s psych chord progressions and a vocal filter reminiscent of Cage the Elephant or even Gorillaz. It’s genuinely unique, unlike anything in their discography and unlike anything else here.
And then the goodbye. Goodbye Kanan closes the EP and, at least for now, marks the end point of Lifehouse and new music. There are rumors they’re still slowly working on something new, and I can only hope, but it’s been five years since this and eleven since a proper studio record. Fittingly, the title track is the most true-to-form thing here, no gimmicks on the vocals or the instruments, just the band’s power-ballad return. And it’s dramatic. It builds tension, dark and ominous, into a massive, grand, emotive crash of a finish. If this really is the last word, it’s a hell of a note to go out on.
Goodbye Kanan is the sound of a band unafraid to wander, and your mileage will vary track to track depending on how far you like your Lifehouse from home. The experiments don’t all land, Dragonflies in particular strays far enough that it barely reads as the same band, but the ambition is admirable, Cut & Run is a genuinely great single, and the title track proves that when they return to what they do best, nobody does it quite like them. As a stopgap, it satisfies. As a potential farewell, it’s poignant, restless, and just unresolved enough to leave the door cracked open. Here’s hoping they walk back through it.
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Highlight Songs:
Cut & Run
Goodbye Kanan
Static
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Own it, Stream it, Forget about it?
Stream it. The experiments are bold and worth hearing, but they don’t all stick the landing, and this is a more scattered, restless listen than the records that came before it. Cut & Run and the title track are essential; the rest is a fascinating detour. A great EP to have, just not quite the untouchable run of the classic albums.
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Overall Rating:
3 Stars
