Le Ren's 'Don't Be Funny Without Me' Is a Widescreen Return Worth the Five-Year Wait
Le Ren is Lauren Spear, and Don’t Be Funny Without Me — out August 28th on Royal Mountain — is her second album and her first in five years. She produced it with Jonas Bonetta of Evening Hymns and her bandmate Fez Gielen, at Port William Sound in Mountain Grove, Ontario.
The Sonic Breakdown
The Production & Mix
The Low-End: The whole record turns on a decision she made before the first day of tracking: don’t write the parts. “I didn’t work out any of the parts before, so we really came in and workshopped every song together,” she told The Line of Best Fit. The band arrived, the songs got built in the room over roughly two weeks, and you can hear the difference between an arrangement that was assigned and one that was discovered. On the instrumentation she was blunt about her appetite: “I was like, the more the merrier! We had drums, we had electric guitar, we had fiddle.”
The Spatial Dynamics: Where her earlier work was spare almost to the point of transparency, this is full alt-country band dressing — fiddle, drums, layered harmony, piano, dusty barroom guitar. Exclaim!’s Megan LaPierre frames the arrival precisely: “Le Ren reintroduces herself with a widescreen sound, her voice expounding the multiple meanings of her lyrics with the support of full alt-country band dressings.”
Standout Performance
Spear’s harmony stacking. LaPierre again, on the effect: “Le Ren’s are a reflecting pool, mirroring every ounce of blood, sweat and tears that she puts in, a cascade of harmonies echoing back to her.” Kacy Lee Anderson turns up on “Die Inside” and the two voices sit together like they’ve been doing it for years.
Why It’s Certified
“A Song Can Love You Back” opens it and earns its title. “Free Wheeling” was the lead single and remains the fastest way in. “Gold in California” is the one KLOF Mag singles out alongside it, and the title track is the record’s gut-punch — KLOF compares its brand of longing to “I Will Always Love You” and argues it’s “arguably just as good.” Their overall verdict is the one we’d sign: “This is a phenomenally powerful album, one that masterfully deploys a wide range of musical tropes to tell a real-life story.” Certified great.