Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
What would you do differently If You Could Have It All Again? An old question perhaps of inconsequence, for Time does not allow the luxury of returning to the moment where your life could be altered significantly; for in the heat of the yes/no response your whole future hangs on the decision made by you and for you.
Nobody would turn down the chance to undo the mistakes, but if your life has been one that has satisfied you, that you did your best in all things and possible ways, then to have the understanding you have to work twice as hard just to stand still, to have what you fought so hard for the first time round, then the question should be, how would that make you feel.
It is a question posed by Low Island in their incredible debut release, If You Could Have It All Again, and one that through tracks such as What Do You Stand For, Who’s Having The Greatest Time?, I Do It For You, Spaces Closing In and the finale of What The Hell (Are You Gonna Do Now?) feels that line of enquiry is there to unload the burden of the listener, to remove the anxiety, and yet underneath, the explosion of sound is one of constant demand, fulfilling, surrounding, invading and relentless.
This yin and yang effect, of consoling confrontation is to be applauded, for it doesn’t allow the listener to rest upon the laurels that other bands would lull the listener into by default, instead it the cardiac machine that keeps the heart pumping as every expected lyric flies off in fear and is replaced by the cool groove of the unsatiable and the dominant, the unquestionable moment that sees a pleasure of anarchy arise.
Pop should never be all consuming sweetness, there has to be a measure of the darkness about the prevailing popularity, and for Low Island they have found the right response to that hesitating standpoint; by directly attacking the expected they have ground out a place of fragile intimacy and hard-pressed uniqueness, and one that answers the question posed, for the listener will not be content with hearing this just once. This is album to really get your teeth into and consume repeatedly.
Low Island release If You Could Have It All Again on April 16th.
Ian D. Hall