by Elizabeth Braaten (@elizabethbwords)
The Lentils returned last month with Hello Jane Goodall, Are You Listening? (out via I’m Into Life Records) which is either their seventh, eighth, or tenth album — depending on how you count. Soft woodwinds and a disarmingly relaxed wistfulness take center stage on the project, culminating in a sound that manages to feel both cozily familiar and brand new. Hello Jane Goodall, Are You Listening? is disarmingly poignant, sonically daring, and delightfully weird, much like the band itself.
The Lentils first formed from the ashes of psych-pop collective Happy Jawbone Family Band of blog-era acclaim. Hailing from Brattleboro, Vermont, the group enjoyed a strong following during the early 2010s before their demise in 2014, leaving frontman Luke Csehak to pick up the pieces. After a year’s wait and an album and a half, Csehak packed up and headed for California before eventually settling in Los Angeles. It was there that he began assembling the team of musicians that is now known as The Lentils. They’ve since grown to somewhere between thirteen and twenty members and are known for a sound that is ever-evolving, just like the group itself.
Though their earlier albums were characterized by heavier alternative tunes, The Lentils have now landed on what they call “true elf-rock,” describing their current sonic landscape as being “peopled with bassons, and flutes, and thimble-logic, and quiet, quiet cultural reticences.” That charming, irresistible sound defines Hello Jane Goodall, Are You Listening? — the project is layered with soft soundscapes and warm lyricism. Csehak’s distinct humor shines through on songs like “Reptilian Gangsters,” as he notes that “music’s kinda stupid, but at least it keeps me poor.”
His emotional vulnerability is also on full display here — on the introspective folk track “Easy on the Shadow Work,” Csehak asks “but is it really so reckless/To believe in my second chance?” He extends that same encouragement to us as listeners, too, reminding us that struggle, while uncomfortable, is necessary for the development of our own rich plot lines on the moving “Pain is a Macguffin” (“I’m sorry but this pain cannot contain us, you should prepare to be adored”).
Hello Jane Goodall, Are You Listening? was recorded across four different studios with the aim of capturing The Lentils’s live sound by featuring different lineups from the group’s history. It’s a project that’s endearingly honest and forever comfortable in its own skin. Maybe that’s because it’s music that aims to give, refusing to expect anything from us as listeners.
“The Lentils don’t want to impress you,” the band elaborates. “The Lentils don’t want to be influential. The Lentils don’t want social capital. The Lentils want to be there for you when you need them and then you can go on about your life.” In an increasingly attention-driven society, that concept feels achingly human, like a warm hug after a long day. This is The Lentils we’re talking about, after all — could we ever expect anything less?