Out Of The Wasteland (2015)
As of now, it’s been eleven years since Lifehouse released a record of brand-new material, and that record is deeply underrated. Out of the Wasteland isn’t a reinvention the way Almería was. It’s something quieter and, in its own way, just as satisfying: a band nearly two decades in, dropping most of the grit and grunge, and proving they could still execute classic Lifehouse at the highest level. Not every record has to reinvent the wheel. Some just have to be really, really good.
It opens bright. Hurricane is a slick, commercial, easily accessible Lifehouse track, and a telling one, because it’s where you first notice the band setting down their rougher edge in favor of pure pop-rock. Great synth soloing, excellent pacing, high energy. From there the album finds its crown jewel almost immediately. One for the Pain carries over some of that Almería western energy into something tense and a little darker, built on clever wordplay and an unconventional drum groove, and it’s endlessly singable. It’s the best thing here.
The next stretch is the band operating in a familiar lane and doing it beautifully. Flight opens somber and piano-driven before it builds and builds into the realization that oh, this is a power ballad, classic Lifehouse, no reinvention, but masterfully executed. The emotion is there, the energy is there, and Jason’s vocal sustain when he belts is still genuinely impressive, still fully intact after almost two decades. Runaways follows in a similar mode, a dramatic mid-tempo power track with floor toms, soaring vocals, and layered harmonies, and while it walks a lane the band has walked before, what it delivers remains top-class. Firing Squad keeps that thread going, floor-tom-driven and dramatic, thick with vocal layering and harmony.
Then the record starts detouring, and the detours are where it gets special. Wish feels like third-album-era Lifehouse, carried by acoustic picking and gorgeous string arrangements into a truly beautiful piece of composition. Jason sounds warm and homey here, and it reminds me a little of Yesterday by The Beatles, there’s more going on musically, but it invites the same feeling. Stardust is the complete out-of-left-field moment, sounding unlike anything the band had done, in no small part because bassist Bryce Soderberg takes lead vocals. His cadence and delivery feel more modern and rhythmic, and it’s incredibly refreshing and outright fun. Alien, like Wish, lives in that soft third-album space, soft pop-rock with some of those 2010s Barenaked Ladies synth textures, warm and inviting and easy to fall into.
The back half leans fully into warmth and maturity. Central Park feels like an early-fall night under orange streetlamps, grown-up and contemporary, Lifehouse after fifteen years, and it’s gorgeous. Hurt This Way welcomes a bit of that Almería western feel back in, rich acoustic guitar and banjo-like picking in the chorus, big group harmonies, and xylophone accents that give it real personality. Yesterday’s Son opens somber and almost classical, Jason delivering layered a cappella harmonies before the band eases in with soft percussion, acoustic accompaniment, and strings, holding onto that soft western feel. And then Hourglass, which I love more every time. On first listen there’s so much you take for granted, it’s a ballad, keys lightly dancing across the track, the chord progressions beautiful, the composition serene. And that oboe? Who saw that coming? Jason’s duet with the other vocalist is stunning. Gorgeous doesn’t even begin to cover it.
The Deluxe closes things out on two of its strongest cards. Hindsight boasts one of my all-time favorite Lifehouse hooks and melodies, crisp warm guitars, driving bass and drums, and a chorus carried by full-band vocals. And You Are Not Alone ends the record as a dramatic closer that refuses to hand you its release right away, building tension and making you wait for the payoff, which is exactly what a closer like this should do.
Out of the Wasteland is the sound of a veteran band with nothing to prove and no interest in coasting. It doesn’t chase the reinvention of Almería, and it doesn’t need to. What it offers instead is fifteen-plus years of songwriting craft distilled into a warm, mature, quietly gorgeous record, one that hides genuine experiments (Stardust, that oboe on Hourglass) inside a collection of some of the most beautifully executed classic-Lifehouse they ever recorded. It’s underrated, it’s underheard, and if it really does turn out to be their last full-length of new material, it’s a deeply graceful place to leave things.
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Highlight Songs:
One for the Pain
Hourglass
Hindsight
Wish
Stardust
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Own it, Stream it, Forget about it?
Own it. This is criminally underrated late-period Lifehouse, a mature, warm, beautifully executed record that trades reinvention for pure craft and never once coasts. From One for the Pain to that oboe on Hourglass, it rewards every listen. Buy it, then whisper sweet things to it.
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Overall Rating:
4.5 Stars
