I don’t think we’re calling it a comeback, maybe a restart, but As Shadows Fall is the first we’ve heard from LIINES in a little while. Back in 2020 they were voted Breakthrough Act at the Manchester Evening News CityLife Awards, which might have been something of a poisoned chalice as this is their first physical release since.
According to the band’s singer, Zoe McVeigh, “There’s been a lot of life in this gap between records”. I feel like the word ‘life’ is doing some heavy lifting there. Then again, I’m not sure I know anyone who’s been having an easy time of it the past few years. There’s been a lot of it about, hasn’t there? A lot of ‘life’ happening. I realise I still kind of thought of LIINES as a fairly new band. Frozen back on the other side of that gap, working on a second album.
This new EP shows them picking up where they left off, keen to get back at it. There’s no radical reimagining or noticeable change of approach, more like a firm restatement of their essential sound. Sleater Kinney remain the obvious reference point, a little PJ Harvey here, a touch of Pixies there and so on. Their influences are clear but not overwhelming. A lean three piece in 90s alt-rock vein, the songs are short and sharp.
From the stiff hi-hats that open ‘Look For You’ to the intertwined vocal and guitar lines that close out ‘Holding On’ the songs are marked by a sense of space and tight arrangements. They make only sparing use of distortion, McVeigh’s guitar tending towards lead lines rather than rhythm chords. Short phrases looping tightly around on themselves. On ‘Look For You’ they move quickly through separate voicings that create a sense of a bigger band without clotting the space.
The lyrics are equally pared back, almost terse. The overarching theme seems to be someone leaving. The first couple of songs wondering where, “I always look for you” (‘Look For You’) “where did you go” (‘Go’) with the last couple dwelling on a potential return, “Come back to me” (‘Wait’), “and I wait and I wait and I wait for you” (‘Holding On’). The middle song, and source of the EP’s title, ‘Always The Same’ offers a meditation on constancy in the ongoing shit show of the world. There’s just enough there that they seem personally significant and little enough that you can own them yourself should you wish.
Drummer, Leila O’Sullivan calls it “a new lease of life” with McVeigh saying this is “us finding our way to being properly back as a band”. Five tough tunes with no fat on them, As Shadows Fall, is a strong start and a fine restatement of intent.
