The songwriting on The Dead Will Walk Dear is fascinating, while the musical and vocal arrangements are warm and inviting. I just wish more of the songs developed past a single idea. With 10 songs in 27 minutes, though, this gentle record with a dark undertone never drags.  Full text...

And like that guy at your high school, The National Lights are compelling, and you want to watch them, never to speak to them, but to see how they live. I see The National Lights as a bar band, playing at the end of the night in a country town, when all the rowdy drunks have been kicked out, and only the quiet, solemn, depressed drinkers are left, lulled into silent comas, resting their foreheads against near-empty glasses of beer because those last few drops are all they have left to live for.   Full text...

Supported by a soundtrack of acoustic guitar, piano, banjo, lap steel and organ, and offering fragments of the puzzle in each track, The National Lights have created a truly haunting, yet entertaining folk record.  Full text...

The combination - of pretty serenity and murderousness - is disturbing. It's a little off-putting. But it's also the key to why the album works. Without that frisson, The Dead Will Walk, Dear would just be another half hour of pleasant music.  Full text...

It’s kinda folky, kinda poppy, and just weird enough to stand out amongst other discs of its ilk. It could just be a whole lot more than that.  Full text...

The National Lights do a fine job of sticking to the themes that define them: small town blues, death, and love.  Full text...