Track-by-Track: Adventure Lost Unrigs the Immersive Album ‘Before the Memory Fades’

Hailing from Philadelphia, Adventure Lost has released their highly anticipated second album, Before the Memory Fades. This dynamic five-piece band, known for its emotionally charged and narrative-driven music, has created an album that promises to captivate listeners of all generations. With a sound that echoes the influences of iconic bands like The Beatles, Coldplay, and Queen, the album blends rich storytelling with evocative soundscapes, exploring existential themes, self-discovery, and the tension between staying and leaving. Fans can expect an immersive musical experience as the album unfolds in three phases: yearning, action, and reflection.

The concept for Before the Memory Fades began in March 2023 after lead vocalist Jack Faracchio embarked on a transformative five-month solo backpacking trip. This journey through Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and the USA inspired the album’s narrative, which weaves together songs written over seven years. The album’s authenticity is enhanced by lo-fi voice memos recorded during Faracchio’s travels, contrasting with the professionally orchestrated tracks, balancing raw emotion and polished production.

Originally formed in 2016 by Jack Faracchio and Larry Laccio, Adventure Lost has evolved, fusing diverse genres and influences into their progressive-pop and alt-rock sound. Their transformation journey continues with Before the Memory Fades, inviting listeners to reflect on the fleeting nature of time while finding meaning in the present.

Amid this success, Jack Faracchio of Adventure Lost sat down with V13 to unrig the stories and inspiration behind the album with an exclusive Track-by-Track rundown.

1. “Another Day in Bed”

“Our story begins at a low point amidst the doldrums of the post-pandemic daze. ‘Waking up at midnight, another day in bed…’ – I didn’t need to ‘write’ the opening lyric – it was simply a confession. The isolation of that time had wrecked my sense of sleep and ambition, and after one particularly hazy, wasteful day, I got out of bed in the dead of the night, grabbed my guitar, and let my hands play something, anything.

“The opening riff came so naturally, as if I were watching my hands play it for me. I decided then and there I’d make a change, and let this song give voice to the dark and vulnerable thoughts I’d never speak aloud… and it felt GREAT. I let myself be pitifully insecure in the verses, and saucy in the choruses– all the while looking to the horizon, yearning for ‘…the life that’s meant for me.’ To honour the spirit of this song’s rawness, we used the original iPhone voice memo from that very night as the final, closing verse.”

2. “Ships!”

“The adventure begins… Picture yourself in paradise, on a moonlit beach, young and in the heat of love. Not a care in the world, with your lover by your side… But then BAM, the blaring of a warship’s horn splits the peace, as the fleet appears on the harbour’s horizon. War has broken out far away, and you’ve been called on to ship out immediately. This is the (oddly specific and vivid) scene I held in my head while composing this song on piano five years ago, and honestly, it kind of surprised me where it led our protagonist.

“Wrenched away from love and thrust into battle, the last thing you hear is the blaring of ships’ horns as you’re abruptly knocked out, and left to float in the hands of fate… You wanted adventure? Well, you got it.”

3. “Mezzogiorno”

“Gently waking into a dreamlike state, you know not where you are, nor how long it’s been. But you know you’re safe, and that you’ll need to heal. ‘Mezzogiorno’ is Italian for midday, but also refers to the Southern regions of Italy, where this song was recorded in the middle of a five month solo backpacking trip. In fact, this song was the easiest to record by far.

“One gorgeous, sunny day in the hills, I stepped out onto the balcony, set my iPhone down and hit ‘record’– what you hear is just a one-take improv, strumming along to the ambience. Serendipitously, a train rolled through in the distance, carrying us gently into the next track… When I ended the recording I remember saying to myself, ‘Hmm, this should be a part of the next album.’”

4. “What Might Be”

“Alright, so now you’ve learned a lesson or two about adventure and love, and you’ve healed enough to get moving. You dared to dream that love might find you again, but are you ready for it to become reality? Ummm….? .…YES! OF COURSE! Let’s go, you deserve this.

“This song (like ‘Ships!’) was built as a rhapsody, taking us from 1. wistfully dreaming of love that might be, to 2. the intensely intimate presence and quiet that comes in the first moment of realizing love’s depth, to 3. the heart-pounding build of emotion that threatens to overwhelm your inhibitions as you dare to believe that YES, this can happen to you, to finally 4. no more imagination, and letting yourself become consumed with ecstasy (and some pretty sick harmonizing guitar solos).”

“Dreams are never meant to last longer than the time we spend to make them come to pass.”

Adventure Lost ‘Before the Memory Fades’ album artwork

5. “The End of Forever”

“Fulfilled, and flushed with confidence and swagger, it’s full-steam-ahead. Embarking on new swashbuckling adventures in what feels like your prime, it feels like nothing could possibly bring you down. But once again, you’re seeking adventure? Well, you got it. Very quickly, it becomes apparent you might be in over your head. But this time, you’re sailing this ship and you won’t back down, even if you’re careening off the ends of the earth.

“This song is particularly special to us as a band, because of how collaboratively we wrote and produced it as our original three-piece lineup years ago. In addition to the current Adventure Lost partnership (Larry Laccio [drums] and myself), we brought our longtime bassist Johnathan Sellers back aboard to record bass and supporting vocals for this song, which he helped write. This is the only song on this record featuring a musician besides Larry and I.

“We wanted this song to act as a sort of final hurrah! and tribute to the years and hundreds of shows we shared on stage as a power trio. In fact, this song’s opening announcer sample is from a video clip of the final show we played as a unit in 2021. Every time I hear the outro of this song, the mental image I always see is the three of us at the helm of a ship, rambunctiously sailing it off the edge of a waterfall.”

6. “Love & Violence”

“The end of track five marks a major shift, and the closing of Act I. We’ve already seen love and adventure come, go, and come again. We thought we learned the first time around, but did we though? Life is a long game, it marches on beyond the peaks we’ve reached. Is there more to this life than striving to reach new heights?

“Well, the clouds are gathering now, and the rains will soon fall upon both summits and valleys, love and war. It’s time to weather the storm. ‘The winds begin to barrel down – what they strip away was not meant to stay around.’ This song was also built around the original demo. The guitars and bass are iPhone voice recordings.”

7. “Lucy’s Shoes”

“Whether or not you weather the storm, there will be those who do not. Inspired by an amalgam of real-life stories of loss and hardship in our home city of Philadelphia, ‘Lucy’s Shoes’ is the tragic narrative of befriending an aging street musician as she approaches her final days. Created as an homage to classic folk/singer-songwriter lyricism, we wanted to push the envelope to blend modern, vintage, and experimental production techniques.

“The bass drum is a sample of me beating my chest (same in tracks six and ten). Samples of birdcalls are used as melodic taglines. Ultimately, the message is acceptance, we must come to terms with the limited time we have and the time that others have with us.”

8. “What She Leaves Behind”

“The birds carry on whistling Lucy’s tune after she has gone. What’s left behind is a reminder that she (and indeed all of the past) continues to resonate forevermore. This helps you find solace and peace, but making peace with the past is not the end of the journey – it just prepares you to move ahead, yet again.

“Here, we start to see the most central message and theme of this album really begin to crystallize– that lasting peace is not found by chasing high points or achieving perfection, but rather by honouring the balance and rhythm that holds everything together in the eternal present. This is also the original iPhone demo. It’s the only song I’ve ever written in an alternate tuning for guitar. This song moves us from daytime (birdsong) to nighttime (crickets, also recorded on iPhone in New Hope, Pennsylvania).”

9. “On the Edge”

“As we descend into the darkness of nighttime, we reach the true rock bottom for our protagonist. Struggling to move ahead after so much loss, we’re also coping with the crushing fact that despite already achieving so much, we find ourselves stuck yet again in a low point ‘wondering where I went wrong.’

“Similar to track one, this was another painfully vulnerable song for me to write, one where I knew I had to just write the exact words I was feeling, giving voice to a desperation that I’d never speak aloud. So I chose to write the story that I wanted to see. Sure, things seemed pretty dark ‘…at four in the morning…’ (first verse), but a lot can change by ‘six in the morning…’ (final verse). As a new dawn rises, our protagonist rises as well, triumphing in overcoming stagnation and the fear of failure because we recognize that many more failures will always lay ahead. But so does life, along with everything it offers.”

10. “Go Away Now”

“As track nine fades into the glorious sunrise of things to come, Act II comes to a close. To begin the final Act III, we’re immediately thrust into the warmth and joy of rekindled love. This time around, we’ve learned our lessons many times over. So much so, that we can’t help but have a more pragmatic perspective on love. We recognize that despite the euphoria and ease of the present conditions, change is inevitable and usually unpredictable.

“With another adventure always on the horizon, we cannot help but ‘start to wonder just how long you’ll stay…’ The keyboard solo in the bridge reprises the guitar solo melody from ‘Istanbul,’ the first lead single from our first album (Going Back to Sleep), hinting at the hidden connections yet to come.”

11. “It’ll All Be Over Soon”

“Sooner or later, we all face the music; this song takes that metaphor literally. Without a doubt, the most cryptic, progressive, and cinematic track on the record, this song brings us to a space somewhere between life and death, between dreaming and waking. This is our moment of reckoning, where the voice of fate itself is embodied as the narrator, guiding us through the life we’ve lived so far, and where it shall inevitably lead.

“The second verse’s lyrics reprise and connect the threads between the story arc of our first album and the adventures of this second album. It all builds into the epic, climactic revelation put in the simplest terms possible: ‘…over and over and over and over and over again…’

“This composition was heavily inspired by my fascination with the music of Star Wars (John Williams). It took me four years to write this song, as it forced me to become a better musician in order to execute it with the operatic drama it deserved.”

12. “Before the Memory Fades”

“As we’re gently lifted out of the dream state and back into the present reality, we arrive at our final moments of reflection on this journey. We think back to how different it all seemed when we were younger, and how much we’ve learned along the way. Nevertheless, we still cannot resist one of the most classic human tendencies, that desire to hold on, when we know we cannot stay.

“Written on a cheap guitar in Italy (the same as track three), this song came together piece by piece, with the closing melody literally coming to me as I awoke from a dream. This song was born from one of the simplest, yet most potent scenes I have ever lived or imagined, the feeling of holding your lover close, as one of you stands on the platform, and the other on the train.”

“All that can be said is: ‘Don’t turn away, we’ve still got time before the memory fades…’”