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The Vacant Lots are a two-piece out of Burlington by way of Brooklyn, Jared Artaud and Brian MacFadyen, working a "minimal means, maximum effect" creed since 2010. They fold minimal synth, neo-psychedelia, shoegaze and post-punk into one cold, hypnotic pulse, the lineage running straight through The Velvet Underground, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Suicide and New Order. Sonic Boom produced their 2014 debut Departure, and they have moved through Mexican Summer, Sonic Cathedral and Fuzz Club across Endless Night and Interzone. Closure, out September 30, 2022 on Fuzz Club, is their fourth and darkest turn, eight tracks in roughly 23 minutes.
We go back with these two. They played Austin Psych Fest in 2011 and 2012, and they returned to us for Levitation 2022, so pressing this one as a Levitation Edition feels less like a release and more like keeping a long conversation going.
Closure is the sound of a band trimming all the fat. Eight tracks, no wasted motion, every drum machine and synth line locked in service of the song. Thank You opens with that propulsive, deadpan cool the duo does better than almost anyone, and Consolation Prize lands like the synth-pop single they have always had in them, hooky and bruised at the same time. At 23 minutes it hits and gets out, which is exactly the point.
If we are being honest, the brevity cuts both ways. Just as the record settles into its groove it is over, and a couple of the back-half tracks could have stretched another verse without losing the tension. We would not call it a flaw so much as a band that refuses to overstay its welcome.
That discipline is exactly why it belongs on wax. Cold, tight, hypnotic records like this reward the ritual of dropping a needle, and our pressing earns it: 180g ultra-clear vinyl with black and white splatter, printed inner sleeve, capped at 150 copies. Built to be played loud and kept close.
Recommended if you like: A Place to Bury Strangers, Black Marble, The Black Angels.
