Lightspeed Champion

Falling Off the Lavender Bridge, Domino

If it was money he was after, Dev Hynes blew it big time. Had he hung on for just a bit longer, his previous band, electro-metal mentalists Test Icicles, would have caught the Nu Rave wave and rocketed to hugeness. Then again, his solo incarnation as Lightspeed Champion might have tapped into the zeitgeist with potentially even more lucrative results: a singer-songwriter of melancholic slowies. 'Falling Off the Lavender Bridge' has the same kind of lush yet lo-fi orchestration as Adam Green. What makes it, though, is Hynes' woe-is-me delivery, which makes the whole album feel like one long plea for a hug.