Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
The Beatles once mused that all you need is love, an anthem perhaps of a lost generation to whom the words echoed and made much more sense after losing so much in the senselessness of a war that ripped what it means to be human, apart.
Perhaps in an age where a different evil lurks, one not just intent on destroying a world, but one that tears at the fabric of society and pits neighbour against neighbour, friend against friend and Government against its people, jealousy, the ever vigilant emotion that feeds and sucks a person dry till even the shell is digested and no trace of the former personality is left; perhaps what is needed is Love Love.
Inspired by the greatness of generations past, of an ethos that was driven by almost everything apart from money and greed, Love Love have arguably become the best sound to come out of Boston since the dumping of tea into the harbour and the signalling of the Revolution.
When an album is so rich in its delivery that you cannot help but fall in love with it on your first listen and then throw the day completely out of the window as you go through each track several times and discussing with anyone that will listen about the finer aspects of the story-telling and narrative structure that would put many novels to shame. Then all you can do is congratulate the band for giving you a day in their company; for it will not be a day wasted as the listener takes in the tremendous generosity of work that is bound up in Love Love’s debut eponymous album.
The mood is provoking; it rings of the allure and the dashing, of the prospect of a lengthy exciting story being told and having front side seats to a well developed and thought out play and the songs are never anything less but a adoring indication of what is to come.
Songs such as the fantastic opener and arguably one of the songs of the year so far, Murderpedia, Big Backyard Moon, the impressive and quirky I Like You Weird, Sunday Morning and Leave Myself are easily roused because they are so none conformist, they play in a yard by themselves but with all the cool kids looking over their shoulder and wishing secretly that they could join in as well.
For Chris Toppin, Jefferson Davis Riordan and Darren Ray joining in on guitar, this is an album that strides forward with purpose and never once asks anything of the listener but the calm patience in which to be enthralled, it is a request that cannot be denied.
Love Love, so good they had to name it twice, a beautifully produced album which just confirms that humanity has so much to offer. A huge and positive release!
Ian D. Hall