After witnessing this quartet’s performance at a Fopp in-store appearance, I was looking forward to reviewing this about as much as having my testicles nailed to a ship’s mast. And opener ‘Hot Tent Blues’ confirms my worst fears. It sounds exactly how they look – Hoxton personified. Even worse it sounds like Queen played by the Shoreditch fashion police – all pomp, bombast and awful 80’s synth. After 30 seconds I’m fighting off the urge to be sick in the wastebin under my desk, however rather than heralding the arrival of a suicide inducing album of pain it announces an album full of inventiveness, eccentricity and a whole bouncy castle full of fun.
‘Broken’ is a frenetic jaunt with enough hooks to keep a professional angler happy. The only criticism being Samuel Dust’s affected yelping, which is a bit of a barrier throughout and something that I imagine him being self conscious about as it is (thankfully) sporadic. When it comes to the end there is what sounds like a nod to the world of Aphex Twin, and it leaves me wondering why they don’t explore that more thoroughly rather than going into ‘Space And Woods’, which is essentially a rip off of Gary Numan and a whole host of forgettable 80’s synth duos
‘The Bears Are Coming’ has a great percussive intro, which is followed by parping, bass heavy, keyboards and what sounds like Sweep (from Sooty and Sweep) being raped, which is surprisingly quite pleasant to the ears. It also has space age doo-wop breakdown right in the centre again showing that this group are full of surprises and ideas.
‘Random Firl’ has an unlikely vocal melody which is all over the place and better for it, unfortunately this doesn’t continue and the single ‘Heartbeat’ sees Mr Dust singing like the bastard child of Luke Pritchard from the Kooks and David Byrne. As with ‘Broken’, and the later ‘Focker’, the strongest part of the ‘Heartbeat’ is the last 20 seconds where a whole new section comes in. It’s almost as if they’ve got great ideas but nowhere to use them to their full potential, so they just whack them in at the end of the songs rather than seeing them go to waste. I’d be more inclined to explore these passages more fully as they’re twice as interesting as some of the more commercially catchy tunes here.
‘VW’ should be a great instrumental moment but ends up just being, well, a bit wanky really. It’s got big balls and a lot of driving intensity but it just doesn’t go anywhere. Plus by this point the synth effects are starting to be as irritating as the fly that is persistently flying around me and landing on my keyboard as I type, which is VERY IRRITATING INDEED. ‘Focker’ next and has a vocal melody that makes me want to chew my own ears off, as does listening to ‘The Enemy Are The Future’, which is just one bad idea repeated for nigh on 4 minutes.
The standout track is ‘Mad Dogs And Englishmen’ which owes more than a nod to Gang Of Four, and shows that LOTP need not rely on clever, novelty synth sounds to make them interesting. The track is unique on this album in that the worst bit of the song is the last 30 seconds, where they introduce Sweep being assaulted again.
It’s inventive, eccentric and fun then but I can’t see it lasting the test of time. It’s like the equivalent of a one night stand – a bit of slap and tickle that will fill a gap until you meet someone you really, really care about.
Top Tracks: ‘Mad Dogs And Englishmen’, ‘Broken’.
Released 18/08/2008 on Parlophone
