Something is happening in Philadelphia. In February 2011 Lost in Company
released its debut EP, recorded and produced by Ted Richardson at Cedar Street Studios. The quintet, who've recently been making noise on the local Philadelphia music scene, was formed first in New Jersey in 2009. The current lineup includes: Guitarist and lead vocalist Christopher Johnson, auxiliary guitarists Ryan Reese and Paul McCoy, Benjamin Contois on bass, and Luis Santos on percussion. Since then, Lost in Company has played The M-Room, The North Star Bar, The Tin Angel and have recently returned from the Dewey Beach Music Conference where they played the main stage of the Rusty Rudder.
Front man Johnson's lyrics have the touch of romantic fatalism and are a throwback to the neo-soul of the nineties and early aughts. It is a sound which also combines jazz funk, blues, and rock with the anthemic pop hooks of now, but without the melisma that characterizes contemporary pop. In the American Idol age, Lost in Company is refreshing, and stays clear of monosyllabic riffs and self-indulgent vocal theatrics; relying instead on Johnson's lyrics, sung with a slight rasp and a sometimes indecipherable drawl. Johnson's voice endows a complexity to the lyrics that might not be otherwise apparent if delivered by another, a sort of semi-impassioned laconic coolness, an ache in his voice to suggest that he is really singing about something he hasn't quite gotten over yet (which for the sake of the Philadelphia music scene, we have to hope he doesn't).