Weird Lines Weird Lines Weird Lines - Weird Lines
Self-released
Released on May 2nd, 2025
I first heard the debut Weird Lines record, Weird Lines, after seeing them play live. It was fun and optimistic, thoughtful and pretty. I heard Weird Lines’ second album, Weird Lines/Weird Lines, the day it came out. It felt scrappy and lo-fi in a good way. I have listened to Weird Lines’ third album, Weird Lines Weird Lines Weird Lines dozens of times.
If someone had to make me choose between Weird Lines, Weird Lines/Weird Lines and Weird Lines Weird Lines Weird Lines, I’d simply choose not to choose. I prefer Weird Lines, the band. I prefer the whole experience. Weird Lines Weird Lines Weird Lines is soooo sick, though. Holy shit. Let’s talk about it.
Um. First, let’s talk about Weird Lines, the band. The project. If Weird Lines was a galaxy, C.L. McLaughlin is the sun. The planets are his talented friends from in and around Sackville, New Brunswick. The cast changes a bit each record and Weird Lines Weird Lines Weird Lines seems to have a bigger role that’s been filled by Jose Contreras of By Divine Right.
The record opens with the piano and horns of “The Event”, a track that is joyous and moody, and feels like a cross between the big, beautiful pop of bands like The Heavy Blinkers and gleeful saucy simplicity of Bob Dorough’s work on Schoolhouse Rock. Our next stop is a bleepy, bloopy, synthy little beauty that could play on the same softball team as The Russian Futurists or Advance Base. Next, a dancey track that could be a Depeche Mode song or something. Then a sweet campfire lullaby. The kind played too late at night while friends and lovers rest their heads upon each other's shoulders. The second half of the record is decidedly quieter and moodier. Songs for hot mornings and brisk nights.
Weird Lines Weird LInes Weird Lines has less fuzzy parts than its siblings, and that’s cool. I mean, I love the fuzzy parts. I really love fuzzy parts! This is nice, though. Weird Lines, the band, always comes through with my favorite kind of albums. A person wrote a bunch of really nice songs and got their talented friends to help. C.L. writes perfect songs and their common thread is that he wrote them. And that he sings them. C.L.’s voice is versatile, comely, and imperfect. It has an effortless vulnerability that makes the soft spots in the songs feel familiar and relatable and it is strong enough to carry the harder parts.
There aren't any weak spots on the album. My favorite two tracks are the last two on the album. “Poison Fleur de Lis” feels like it should be sung during the climax of a fantastic movie. It is powerful and raw. It drives, ebbs and flows. It batters you gently. The closer, “Oh, Horizon” is a whispered love letter. It’s a message in a bottle thrown into the sea. An excerpt from a found diary.
Weird Lines Weird Lines Weird Lines feels like we all found C.L.’s diary. We can flip through it and feel all that he is. His highs and lows, his softness and strength. That’s about all you can ask from a record, and I’m so glad that he and his talented friends let us read it.
- Craig Martell
