Love is All - Nothing To Be Done / Ageing Had Never Been His Friend (Parlophone)
4/5
By: Chris O'Toole
After riding the carousel of popular acclaim and critical plaudits with their 2006 release, 'Nine Times That Same Song', Love Is All took some time off to regroup, recover and record. The result is a double A-Side single, featuring a cover 'Nothing to be Done' by C-86 luminaries the Pastels. Released in support of their UK-mini tour, the band claim 'Nothing to be Done' as the perfect pop song, a track they have long cherished, and as such were a little frightened that they might be accused of butchering the classics. Thankfully, their fears are misplaced.
Love is All place there stamp on the track with composure and assured grace. Whereas the original has a wistful naivety about it, the air of a teetering shambles, perennially on the verge of collapse, the Swedish band bring a touch of musical bravado to the fold; amplifying every element of the piece, but maintaining its structural intensity. To the Pastels, the opening guitar chords must have felt like a top down convertible classic, whereas to the world at large it sounded like a group of music students with a good heart but lacking in musical dexterity, which in fact it was. Love is All take this straw structure and inject a new vibrancy, not to mention musical ability, and where some of the bumbling charm is lost, this finds more than adequate compensation in a new ecstatic rendition here.
The other track presented, 'Ageing Had Never Been His Friend', follows similar lines of infectious, measured pop. Taken from their 'Nine Times the Same Song' debut, Love Is All employ all their aces on the track; saxophones reach for the highest of high notes, drums rattle and guitars thrash out pure and engaging melodies. However the real strength again here is the childish but charming vocal of Josephine Olausson, which imbues the track with its key dynamics.
Probably not a very good hint at the direction of the next Love Is All album, more of a stop over to remind people who they are while they continue to charm crowds across the continent.
Stream 'Nothing To Be Done' HERE.
Artists in this article: Love Is All
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