Cody Lenhard - Ahead Of You

Cody Lenhard

Ahead Of You
​self-released; 2020

3.6 out of 5

By Jamie Funk

It was the early 90’s and I was fourteen years old. I was always involved with music but it was this year I started writing music. After going to college for composition and working on countless albums I still feel like I’m learning things twenty-five years after I started. It’s an ongoing process. Cody Lenhard just started making music in 2018 and he is in the very early stages of being a musician. Lenhard is off to a solid start with his complete DIY effort entitled Ahead Of You.

The songs are short ranging from about a minute-and-a-half to three minutes and felt like vignettes. He starts with “Ahead Of You” where he strums chords on his guitars and I could tell before he started singing that it was going to be a melancholy song. There are some warm elements that come into this mix and the song ends fairly soon after I felt like it was getting started.

“Opiates' ' was definitely very melancholy and sad sounding as well. It reminds me of early Bright Eyes. He starts singing about halfway through the songs. It’s definitely for a warm quality but also pensive and again it sort of ends before it really has a chance to become a meaty song. There are some heartfelt lyrics I thought were really well written.

“Take Me Away” sounded like a completely different artist. It’s upbeat and way more complete sounding than the previous songs. The funky vibes work for him and felt like the highlight  “Our Song” is sort of in the spirit of the first two songs but more hopeful and chipper sounding. It sort of goes in this playful direction and felt like something you might hear in a commercial​. There was something about the instrumentation that made me think of that.

Lenhard has some talent in multiple areas and is also displaying a lot of things I associate with newer musical artists. He is experimenting with different genres trying to find his own signature sound which takes time. At this point I would encourage him to explore where some of the ideas can go. Even if it’s not exactly where it seems it needs to go, I think learning how to create structure and expand on an idea is an important part of the brain to be working out. 

Overall, I thought this was a solid first effort from a young artist. I was really impressed how has been able to harness this sound so early on in his musical journey. I hope this is just the beginning for him and hope to hear more soon.

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