So Lonely in Heaven

2024’s So Lonely In Heaven marked the start of a truly different new era for the Legendary Pink Dots for one simple reason: after over four decades, the Silverman aka keyboardist Phil Knight retired from live touring work and, implicitly, studio work in turn, leaving Edward Ka-Spel as the last person standing from the group’s earliest days. With Orbit Service member Randall Frazier now on electronics in the current quartet lineup, there’s a certain stateliness evident throughout So Lonely In Heaven, evident from the start with its title track – Erik Drost’s guitar parts are some of the loveliest they’ve had over the years, and he does a fine job throughout the album – but Ka-Spel’s particular lyrical and musical visions remain in full effect. The sense of unsettling, detailed music suggesting crumbling structures and fraying at the edges is as strong as it’s ever been on songs like “The Sound of the Bell.” But there’s many examples of the fragile prettiness that’s still persistent in turn, with Frazier’s elegance on “Dr. Bliss ‘25,” the nightclub-jazz-tinged swing of “Everything Under The Moon,” and the acoustic guitar-led “Wired High: Too Far To Fall,” with Ka-Spel’s performance a moody, entrancing highlight in turn.