Lord Huron’s second studio album “Strange Trails” has had my heart for nearly a year. Its 14 songs from the unknown are the perfect blend of genre–indie folk-rock with ethereal story telling and enchanting musical elements. Ben Schnider’s lyrical genius brought this album world to life. He and his band under the name of Lord Huron put out this album under the name of Lord Huron in 2015 with Whispering Pines Studio. While the album didn’t win any
music awards, it debuted at number 23 on billboards top 200, and the final song on the album “The Night We Met” has garnered over 3.2 billion streams on Spotify alone, making it the 18th most streamed song on Spotify ever. My love for this album runs deep and so over time I’ve dissected the story telling elements and here’s what I’ve taken away from this piece! I highly recommend listening in order to fully understand and try and catch the sneaky song changes.
Love Like Ghosts
This first song is a perfect opener to the album: moody, electric, and the perfect indie vibe. It sets the tones for the themes this musical journey will cover. It’s the beginning of our story and our guide, none other than Lord Huron himself, sets the scene. We hear about his current struggles with seeing ghosts. His wife has seemingly passed away with no warning and he’s mourning her death. He swears he keeps seeing her, staying up all night to catch a glimpse of his love. He speaks to her often and “sings all day and [he] loves [her] through the night.” This lack of sleep feeds perfectly into the next song. My personal rating is 8/10.
Until the Night Turns
This second song is truly one of my favorites! An upbeat anthem that begins to encapsulate Huron’s insanity as he grapples with his grief. He’s been staying up through the nights to see the ghost of his wife and due to that, he is incredibly sleep deprived. Soon he begins seeing a “vision tonight that the world was ending.” This leads to him staying up through the night again, expecting the end of the world. Huron chooses to not be worried because even if “the world ender” comes, he’s got all he needs in life: “a bottle of booze and a beautiful girl.” My personal rating is 10/10.
Dead Man’s Hand
This third song is layered, synthy, and acoustic, with a heavy focus on the rarely used augmented cords and a featured harmonica solo. It follows Lord Huron’s continued travel through the night. It tells us he is driving out west, trying to outrun the sun, likely still expecting the end of the world. He’s “trying to keep [his] eyes open wide / [he’d] gone days without any rest.” As he’s driving he sees something in the middle of the road. He decides to pull over and finds a boy named Johnnie dead in the middle of the street. Huron decides to properly bury the boy out in the desert. That said, as he is burying Johnnie, he comes back to life and grabs Huron with his “dead man’s hand.” Johnnie asks to not be buried out alone in the desert, saying he knows “how to live, [he] doesn’t know how to die / And there ain’t no thrills in the afterlife.” Understanding, Huron lets Johnnie walk free. Watching him walk away he realizes “he will roam forever haunting the desert.” My personal rating is 9/10.
Hurricane (Johnnie’s Theme)
This fourth song is more instrumental with emphasis on the guitar, bass, and claps. This song serves as an interlude from Huron’s main story. We get Johnnie’s backstory and why he ended up dead in the middle of the desert, saying “you spend your whole life dreaming. You wake up dead.” He goes into how he’s consistently getting himself in trouble. He becomes more and more loopy as he chants the end: “Real or imagined what does it matter…What is life? Only visions / When I die, I’m coming right on back for you / Who am I? An illusion.” This song shows the true spiral of a hurricane. My personal rating is 7/10.
La Belle Fleur Sauvage
This fifth song has an ethereal feeling. It’s slower and more toned down, focusing on strumming elements. This song jumps us back into Lord Huron’s perspective. He’s telling his experience after his encounter with Johnnie. Presumably he continues his travels and eventually hits a new adventure. Ditching the car, he wanders into the woods. He speaks of a flower goddess with possible siren-like qualities. Her name is Lily. Her siren-like qualities are alluded to in the line, “Once he’s gazed upon her, a man is forever changed / The bravest men return with darkened hearts and phantom pain.” Huron unfortunately falls under this spell and falls deeply in love with Lily, desperately wanting to protect her and willing to “give it all to love that girl.” We begin to see Huron lose himself as his vocals distort slightly. My personal rating is 7/10.
Fool for Love
Song number six is a mix of everything on the album so far, ethereal, upbeat, instrumental, synthy, and folky. Truly a showcase of the album. This song continues his story from “La Belle Fleur.” While still under her spell he decided to leave everything behind, “asking Lily to be [his] bride.” He knows there’s another man in her life but he doesn’t care one bit and has intentions of stealing her away because he’s a “fool for love.” He goes to address this other man in question. It’s revealed his name is Big Jim, Huron immediately sees “how [he] got [his] name / [he’s] as tall as hell and broad as a train.” He decides to fight him regardless and though his confidence is high he fails horribly. Unfortunately he’s left lying “out on the drifting snow / bleeding out as it covers [him] so.” He dies out in that field of snow, “not afraid to die / just mad [he] left Big Jim alive.” My personal rating is 9/10.
The World Ender
This seventh song changes the tone. It’s much darker and harsher in some of its musicality. It uses vocal stims as a part of the background. This song continues the story line, post death. Lord Huron is upset and so he comes back to life as “the World Ender.” Awakened from his spell of Lily’s enchantment, he craves revenge against Big Jim and Lily. He not only retells his tales of being dead, but also how he managed to come back to life singing “They put me in the ground / but I’m back from the dead.” My personal rating is 5/10.
Meet Me in the Woods
The eighth song of the album is another ethereal one, midnight thoughts and wandering through the woods vibe. Huron is calling out to anyone, deep in the forest and stuck between the living and the dead world as the world ender. He sings, “Oh, the darkness got a hold on me,” showing how he’s been trapped in the forest. He ends up meeting a girl named Louisa. Louisa and him become close and so she starts meeting him in the woods. It’s a soft and subtle love song of commitment and trust, even when stuck in different worlds. My personal rating is 10/10.
The Yawning Grave
This ninth song jumps back into the darker vibe. It’s a slower and slightly creepy tune, highlighted on the keyboard and synth. When Lord Huron isn’t meeting up with Louisa he’s attempting to contact others through “the yawning grave,” his portal into the physical world. Huron tries to stop other boys from falling into the same trap he did and wandering down strange trails. That said, he’s not very successful. In this song he shows remorse on those who didn’t listen: “I tried to warn you when you were a child” “I sent you omens and all kinds of signs.” He warns them of the dangers of opening their own yawning graves, bridging more gaps between reality. My personal rating is 5/10.
Frozen Pines
This tenth song is folky, with a strong beat and unique xylophone opener. Louisa and Huron continue to meet in the woods. Louisa has to wander through the frozen pines “to nature’s shrine” otherwise known as Huron’s yawning grave. As she’s looking for Huron, she “[calls] [his] name into the dark.” When they do meet, Huron is still dead but nevertheless Louisa is willing to always come back for him. Saying she will always be “Waiting for [him] / on the other side of the frozen pines.” And is “ready to follow [him] / even though [he] doesn’t know where.” She knows “there’s another life beyond” the line but to do that she has to die first. My personal rating is 10/10.
Cursed
The eleventh song is upbeat and electric. It’s reminiscent and more of a memory. The title of the song is telling; Huron recounts being cursed by the love of the witch Lily. He remarks, “I don’t know how to walk out of this deal / the spell she casts on me is real” and paired with this spell are physical representations: “There are runes on [his] skin / that appear when she walks in / [he] is bound by her spell.” It’s alluded to that she has also forced him to do bad things, connecting back to “Meet Me in the Woods” when he speaks of the darkness having a hold on him. My personal rating is 8/10.
Way Out There
The album’s twelfth song is similar in its lower darker notes but what makes this most unique is the use of a Theremin instrument. Lord Huron is so close to being with Louisa but is still trapped in the bridge between worlds. He tells her “follow me way out there / there’s no road that will lead us back.” Meaning she has to die in order for them to be together. He says that “if [he] found a way to stay with [her] tonight / it would only make [him] late for a date [he] can’t escape.” showing how he’s still trapped with Lily, even if woken up from the curse. My personal rating is 7/10.
Louisa
This thirteenth song is a true folk song, perfect for spinning around in a skirt to. In this song Lousia dies and is finally able to live with Huron. Louisa is a gorgeous love song about finally being with his lover, a vow to each other “as a promise that [they] will never be apart again.” Neither of them are alive but they still can feel like they are because they’re together: “[He] feels alive when [he’s] with [his] baby / so tell [him] that [he] won’t ever be lonely again.” My personal rating is 9/10.
The Night We Met
This fourteenth and final song on the album is by far the most well known and popular. It’s slower and sadder with the iconic vocalization in the beginning. It finishes off the story the way we started, reminiscing on Huron’s late wife. This time however, it’s from a more sensible and reserved way, looking back rather than processing for the first time. Her loss was painful: “[he] had all and then most of [her] / some and now none of [her]” and how to this day he’s “haunted by the ghost of [her]” just like in “Love Like Ghost.” This song rounds off the album with a slower sadder note. My personal rating is 7/10.
Works Cited
Huron, Lord (@lordhuron). “Strange Trails, stranger weather, slow-dancing and plenty of cosmic yee-haws. Another memorable year under the stars at Red Rocks.” Instagram. June 23rd 2025
Album cover for “Strange Trails” by Lord Huron. 2015. Whispering Pines Studio, https://www.lordhuron.com/#/.
