Between cities turning into shop windows and castles destined to burn, Lazy Lazarus continues to shape his own imaginary world.
Some ruins reveal more than anything left standing. On it’s only castles burning, the new EP by Lazy Lazarus, out October 23 via Jipo Records, burning castles become a metaphor for a world steadily losing its sense of direction. Cities become stage sets for tourism and consumption, human connections grow increasingly distant, and the urge to escape becomes impossible to ignore. Following his debut album Spilt Milk, the Florence-based songwriter returns with six new songs that expand his sonic palette, weaving together dream pop, psych folk, ambient and alternative rock with lo-fi textures and subtle electronic touches. Inspired by a line from Neil Young‘s “Don’t Let It Bring You Down“, the EP settles into a space where melodic intimacy, adventurous production and quiet introspection coexist with remarkable ease.
Where Spilt Milk explored nostalgia, miscommunication and personal vulnerability, it’s only castles burning widens its lens to examine the world surrounding the individual. At its core is boredom – not as romanticized ennui, but as a collective condition shaped by cities stripped of their identity and repackaged for tourism and consumption. These urban landscapes become sprawling organisms that breed alienation, restlessness and emotional detachment, fuelling a constant desire to be somewhere else. That tension runs through the entire record, alongside a quieter search for new ways of inhabiting a reality that feels increasingly unstable. Change, separation and grief surface throughout the songs, though never in a direct or confessional way; instead, the lyrics leave space for ambiguity, inviting listeners to find their own meanings.
The music reflects that same sense of movement and openness. Acoustic and electric guitars shift between sparse arrangements and wider, more immersive soundscapes, while synthesizers and keyboards continually reshape the atmosphere, moving from ethereal pads to luminous piano motifs, from cinematic textures to fleeting echoes of 1990s video game soundtracks. Bass and drums follow the emotional contours of each song rather than driving them, entering and receding with understated precision. The production remains warm, organic and tactile, favouring presence and emotional depth over polished perfection.
Among the EP’s highlights is “Bored Town“, co-written with Anton Sconosciuto. Their voices drift in and out of one another, balancing irony with quiet unease, while the songwriting nods to influences as diverse as The Beatles and Fugazi without ever slipping into pastiche. The song culminates with Manuel Caliumi‘s alto saxophone, whose soaring performance opens the song onto entirely new terrain and captures one of the record’s defining qualities: its ability to keep evolving without ever losing its emotional centre.
More than simply a follow-up, it’s only castles burning feels like the moment Lazy Lazarus‘ songwriting comes fully into its own. Across six richly textured songs, themes of uncertainty, loss and escape are transformed into an intimate and cohesive body of work that trusts atmosphere as much as narrative. Even as the castles continue to burn, the ruins become a place from which something new can emerge – a clearer artistic voice, one capable of making sense of an increasingly uncertain world.
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