Lost Dog Street Band - Survived

A new release from Lost Dog Street Band was never meant to happen.

It wasn’t long ago that the moody bluegrass troupe was resolute to retire the project, frontman Benjamin Tod having found creative solace in his solo endeavors. However, it was his latest solitary effort, the 2022 release Songs I Swore I’d Never Sing, that made him realize the group was not done, thus Lost Dog Street Band were reborn in Survived.

Their new album - and this new chapter as a whole - doesn’t simply begin; it awakens, reinvigorated and hungry, straining its bleary eyes against a bright pluck and stretching its eager bones to a racing rhythm. Immediately, something is different. From the opening track, ‘Brighter Shade’, the band sounds lighter, freer, as if a weight has been lifted and drawing breath is no longer so taxing.

Rather than their usual process of overdubbing, Lost Dog took another direction when recording Survived. The album’s ten tunes were tracked live, a style that lends to its energy. It sounds alive, its heartbeat thumping through tracks like the sooty and sauntering ‘Divine To Be’ and the weepy and wanton ‘Lonely Old Soul’, while the swaggering ‘Last Train’ and the hell-fired ‘Hubbardville Store’ run hot through the record’s veins.

As a result, each song seems vital. Mega-hits may not be in abundance on the record, but what are are necessary expressions, both beautifully worn and exposing. Like the warbling ‘Lifetime of Work’ and the earnest title track, the offerings – whether they’re about dirtying the hands or cleansing the soul – are all indispensable, essential to an album laced with hard-working, hard-living and hard-learning songs.

While Survived was never meant to happen, it ultimately had to in order for Lost Dog Street Band to show what they’re truly made of.

8 / 10

Lost Dog Street Band's 2024 album, Survived, is out April 26 via Thirty Tigers.

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