Not since “Once More with Feeling” — the 2001 musical episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” wisely released on vinyl by Mondo in 2019 — have I taken the genre of music best described as “TV songs” as seriously as I am, right this very second, listening to Lestat de Lioncourt‘s debut album, “The Failures,” released on Spotify and elsewhere just days after the finale of AMC’s “The Vampire Lestat.”
Confronted with pondering just how good or “valid” rock songs written for a show about vampires could be, you may be tempted to take on a “what in the Dingoes Ate My Baby is this now,” attitude about the whole deal, but factor in that each original song was written by Daniel Hart — who not only wrote the music for both previous seasons of “Interview with the Vampire,” but has also written music for “A Ghost Story,” “Mother Mary” plus countless other projects — and that these songs are sung by Lestat himself (Sam Reid), and it shakes out to the album as a whole being worthy of not just respect as a body of music, but heavy rotation for being actually . . . well . . . good.
Out of the 23 tracks on “The Failures,” which include demos, remixes and alternate versions of songs featured in “The Vampire Lestat,” the stand-outs and repeat plays, for me, can be found in the Sisters of Mercy-esque “When I Call Out Your Name,” along with powerballads from the show such as “The Loneliness,” “Stained Glass Eyes,” and “Brutal Love” — all of which would not seem out of place on a late-career Peter Murphy album.
“I actually found it much easier than writing songs about myself. Having the permission to be silly and bratty was so freeing,” Hart said to The Quietus, discussing composing from Lestat’s perspective.
Silly and bratty as the songs can sometimes be, they’re also beautiful, fun and worth a serious listen.
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