Bob Lord is a producer, composer, and bassist based in Portsmouth NH USA. In 1996 Bob co-founded the award-winning group Dreadnaught, described by Relix Magazine as “the country’s best ‘pure’ prog-rock combo.” The band has performed with artists such as John Entwistle (The Who), Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, King Crimson), and NRBQ, and their 25th anniversary album Northern Burner is set to drop in Summer 2021.
Lord’s resume is a particularly unusual one bolstered by some truly singular credits: with Pete Townshend of The Who, Bob co-produced the double album Method Music by Lawrence Ball, released in 2012 on Navona Records and hailed by Pitchfork for its “wondrous, rippling, and startlingly tactile music.” He is also the music producer of Wild Symphony, an orchestral suite composed by the #1 NY Times bestselling author Dan Brown (“The Da Vinci Code”) which accompanies the illustrated children’s book of the same title released in 2020. The book is published in more than 40 countries worldwide.
Now Bob is gearing up to release his self-produced debut solo album Playland Arcade on April 27th via his own Bob Lord Music as a digital download and via streaming platforms. Today Glide is excited to offer an exclusive premiere of this strangely and titillating collection of songs. With Bob’s own sense of humor coming across in the song titles, lyrics and vocals, the album hits you with hard-charging prog-rock blowouts, atmospheric orchestral potboilers, gauzy jazz improvisations, retro instrumental pop, and straight up foley. Each song is weirder than the next, with Bob and his collaborators throwing a melange of instrumental arrangements at the listener to make for a sound that can only be described as the best kind of sensory overload. One can imaging this as the kind of album someone like Frank Zappa would make if he had access to modern producing technology. From the sinister to the grandiose, Bob isn’t afraid to take risks and let his musical freak flag fly.
The musicianship is as accomplished as it is audacious. Highlighted by Lord’s molten, overdriven 8-string bass and intricate keyboard work, the album features drummer Jamie Perkins from the Billboard chart-toppers The Pretty Reckless (Jon Wyman who produced their album engineered, mixed and mastered all the non-orchestral elements of Playland) and keyboardist Duncan Watt –composer for “League of Legends” — with cameos by Ed Jurdi from Band of Heathens and Trigger Hippy, Andy Happel of Thanks To Gravity, and the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, with percussion recorded in Havana, Cuba.
Bob reflects on the concept behind the album:
“My understanding is that not many musicians choose to artistically self-immolate on their debut solo album, but I opted to go for the gusto,” says Lord. “We were hit by a pandemic, UFOs are real, and I’m writing tunes called ‘Lobster Roll’ and ‘Night Sweats.’ It is what it is.”
LISTEN:
