Lumos, Joe

Look, you're gonna have to take at face value that this is an album based on a book that was ostensibly created for children. There's no way around it. If you don't like the Harry Potter book series, or you've never read Deathly Hallows, then you're going to have a tough time with this one. "Accio barriers of entry!"

You're also going to have to be in on the joke. Yes, there is an album that tells the story of a bespectacled teenager and his friends defeating a snake-faced demon wizard with the power of love. This is supposed to be ridiculous. Harry and the Potters know this. They knowingly created a band based on the hypothetical question "What if Harry Potter fronted a rock 'n' roll band and sang about his own life?" AND they are still (somehow) functioning in 2019, twelve years after the series ended. When you listen to Lumos, you are laughing with Harry and the Potters, not at them. You need to know this. "Accio sense of humor!"

I don't need to explain to you my own personal history with the Harry Potter books, because this is a music review. You can tally up all the ways I'm about to praise Lumos, and maybe make an safe guess based on that whether I like Harry Potter or not. "Accio my childhood!"

If I said Lumos was one of my favorite albums of the year so far, would you believe me? I'm not even sure that I believe me. I chose this album for Record Club because I thought it would be hilarious if it ended up being excellent, and now here we are. The joke is on me. I fucking unabashedly love Lumos. "Accio music critic respectability!"

When I listen to the music of Harry and the Potters, I think about Flight of the Conchords, in that they are, at face value, a satirical band, but the satire is backed up with actual, legitimate musical pastiches by a real-life talented band. They aren't creating new music (the genre tag "Wizard Rock" is yet another joke), but instead they are taking all these different existing styles of music, and creating a story through those established genres. No one is going to listen to "Hermione's Army" and think that they are reinventing the wheel. That's not the point. Harry and the Potters take a very specific subgenre—sleazy, skronky '80s after-hours rock—and play it faithfully to create their tribute to a great literary character. "Accio a fucking Weezer homage!"

When I listen to Lumos, I also think about Tommy, the godfather of rock operas. Both albums tell epic stories that, if you just listen to the album, don't really make a whole lot of sense when you think about it too hard (I'm not being far-reaching here—the comparison is made explicit when our protagonist looks in the mirror in "You're Not the Wizard"). The only difference being that Lumos, of course, has a source text from which you can fill in the blanks (whereas Tommy had a batshit movie that only raised more questions than answers). "Accio more outlandish comparisons to the rock canon!"

In fact, I'd even argue here that Lumos succeeds more so when they concentrate on highlighting the subtext than just repeating the text of Deathly Hallows. So while a song like "Where's Ron" is absolutely fantastic in its own right (it's a legit hold-those-lighters-up hair-metal rock ballad, and it's the best thing Moldy Peaches' Kimya Dawson has ever done in her entire career), it adds nothing to our understanding of the characters or the novel. Whereas, there are songs like "The Banality of Evil (Song for Albert Runcorn)," which examines the motivations of an extremely minor character, pondering how ordinary people contribute to fascism—something that Rowling kind of glossed over a little bit in the novels. It adds to our understanding of the nuances of the wizarding world, which is really fascinating. "Accio every trump supporter who completely ignores the central messages of this book series!"

Lumos does a terrific job of balancing humor and pathos, almost as well as the books themselves do. There are so many little moments scattered throughout this album that made me laugh out loud. The so-bad-it's-good ska pun, comparing underage wizarding law to living in a police state, the falsetto when describing the Godric's Hollow incident as Nagini giving Harry "a little squeeze." Seriously, the fucking coda on "Gone Campin'," listing every fish, absolutely kills me every time. Like, I wanna see Harry and the Potters live just so I can sing along about halibut and scrod. "Accio swordfish of Gryffindor!"

As far as the pathos goes, would it be a bridge too far to believe that I choke up every time I hear "The Stone"? The extended interlude harkens back to what was graffitied on the signpost near the ruins of Harry's former house—a multitude of strangers wishing Harry well on his quest. "Good luck Harry!" and "We're with you, Harry Potter!" are racing through Harry's mind as he walks toward sure death, in the narrative. But when the shouts turn to "Thank you, Harry!", I personally start to echo the sentiment. It switches from thanking Harry Potter the character to thanking Harry Potter the books. I'm so thankful for the magic of this book series. "The Stone" has wrecked me multiple times when I start thinking this way. I know that makes me lame. I know that seems preposterous. I know that I said I wouldn't talk about the books too much. I'm sorry, Harry. "Accio tissues!"

Like I said in the beginning, there's no way around the fact that this is an album based on and inspired by a book. Regardless of whether you agree with how great the music itself is (and I'll argue it's great), I can't imagine that anyone could possibly find anything to appreciate on Lumos if you know fuck all about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. But on the flip side of the coin, if you are a Harry Potter fan, if you, say for instance, stayed up until 1 AM on the night Book 7 was released and then stayed up until 8 AM reading it in one sitting... well, then, Lumos might just be for you. "Accio fan service!"

I have no expectations of this fantastic album having any legs whatsoever. I've listened to it dozens of times in the past week, but there's no way that's going to last. Don't expect to see me singing its praises as a best of the decade or anything like that. Lumos is an album that will burn bright in my life and then eventually Nox itself out. I'm okay with that. I am enjoying it now, and I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to rediscover the joys of Harry Potter in a completely different medium. "Accio fish!"

GRADE: 4.5 pukes out of 5