Lungfish – Necrophones

Necrophones is Lungfish’s eighth studio album, released in 2000 via Dischord Records. The album deepens the band’s characteristic blend of hypnotic repetition, stark rhythms, and Daniel Higgs’ vivid, often enigmatic lyricism. Musically, it balances darker, more contemplative moments alongside tracks with a more urgent, driving pulse. Song titles like All Day and All Night Long, Blue Sky, and Shapes in Space reveal a range from the reflective to the intense, giving the record a textured ebb and flow that rewards repeated listenings.

The album also marks a point of refinement in Lungfish’s sound, with production handled in part by Ian MacKaye and recorded at Inner Ear and ACR Studios. The instrumentation feels more spacious in places, allowing the echoing vocals and cyclical guitar work to breathe. While it retains the band’s rawness and mysticism, Necrophones shows complexity in its structure—moments of menace and beauty, of weariness and determination. It remains a strong offering for listeners drawn to music that challenges and envelops in equal measure.

Reviews:

“Another all-you-can-eat of re-pe­ti­tive riffery that spins like machinery, or slowly, like parodies of nature cycles, over and over with little or no change. The classic Lungfish technique, in case you were worried, is quite intact.” – Pitchfork