Ambulance LTD - 'Ambulance LTD' (TVT)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Nobody ever thinks they've heard too many great pop songs. You can overdose on superbly orchestrated instrumental prog-rock or freeform jazz, scrape the barrel of minimalist punk or simply be in too much of a good mood to listen to half of your record collection at times, but those uncomplicated, cheerful little tunes you can hum as the hairs on the back of your neck go skywards, whilst perhaps not substantial enough to warrant a collection containing solely their kind, you literally can never get enough of. Lucky you, then - for here are some more of them.
Whilst large chunks of Ambulance LTD's eponymous debut are indeed bloody gorgeous, nothing herein is particularly astounding. Your feet are going to tap, but you won't be knocked off them. At the minute, they've found their way around a good hook - and lesser bands have built sturdy careers out of just that. But seeing as they are yet young, there's an inevitable vision here. It's an album full of suggestion, pop songs with ideas.
Well, that's when they are purely pop songs. Going back to that youthful ambition idea, there are some intriguing, lengthy moments of wonder devoid of any vocals, the entirety of the wonderfully almost cinematic opener 'Yoga Means Union', for example, or the first half of the standout 'Stay Where You Are'. They're toying with us. Take the opener as an anomaly, as in the case of the latter, and every other instance of slightly queer sonic trickery, what makes the sound an interesting one is that eventually they all morph in to pieces of beguiling, sun-soaked melody.
You get to hear the pieces of the puzzle fall into place, sometimes very slowly, other times within seconds. Kudos for stretching things a little, but naturally they're going to play to their strengths, so moments of simple pop amiability make up the bulk of proceedings. 'Heavy Lifting' sounds like if Weezer discovered a love for My Bloody Valentine, 'Ophelia' like The Shins if everything about them was aimed purely at making megabucks, and Neil Young haunts more than a few moments ('Michigan' and 'Anecdote', certainly), but the most exciting thing here is the feeling that this could very soon become so much more than the sum of its parts.
The realisation of these ideas, and the coupling of that with an already present melodic knack, could be quite something. At present, Ambulance LTD can be comfortable with their class, even if they only occasionally truly cross over into brilliance. This debut whets the appetite enough to ensure we'll follow when the time comes to make that a permanent transition.
Artists in this article: Ambulance LTD
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