Six years is a long gap, but Lost Crowns have returned with something that justifies the wait. The Heart Is In The Body pulls from folk forms, jigs, hornpipes, sea shanties, then runs them through the angular, lysergic filter this London group shares with the wider Cardiacs orbit. Richard Larcombe wrote and arranged all eight tracks, playing most of the strings and reeds himself, while the rest of the lineup (Sharron Fortnam on vocals, Charlie Cawood on bass and sitar, Rhodri Marsden on keyboards and saw, among others) fills in a cluttered, constantly shifting backdrop. Handbells, hurdy gurdy, English border bagpipe, theremin. It sounds like a session musician's wishlist, and it mostly works.
The production leans into density rather than clarity. Tracks like "Et Tu Brute" layer vocals, tremolo guitar, and bassoon until the mix feels close to collapsing, but that pressure is part of the appeal. "A Sailor And His True Love" ends the album with a more stripped-back arrangement, giving the folk roots room to breathe. Not everything here is immediate. Some passages meander, some feel overstuffed. But if you have patience for prog that takes its cues from British folk tradition rather than symphonic bombast, this delivers.
