Love Is All - Nine Times That Same Song (What's Your Rupture?)
3/5
By: Chris O'Toole
For a band so readily hyped by the musical fraternity in recent months, Love Is All take a remarkably relaxed approach. Even after an inspiring performance at the South By South West Festival in Texas earlier this year pushed their credibility into the stratosphere, the band remained seemingly unconcerned with the trappings of celebrity. Instead the quintet from Sweden are driven by a compulsion to make music, to spread their confident, up front, fresh and young style as wide as possible; taking their top secret hiss and bleed into the homes of their fans.
On their debut album 'Nine Times That Same Song', this energy is translated into a brash, ragged collection of chaotic pop music, filtered through frightful recording equipment and lo-fidelity distortion to create a sound at once lose and free, but also elated and charming. The feel of 'Nine Times...' is that of a group of children with new toys; having broken into the toyshop, they are determined to have as much fun as possible before their parents confiscate their new loot.
For Love Is All, the creative process of writing music is slow and collaborative, with all five members of the group pulling in different directions and offering different influences to the finished sound. The rasping vocal contributions of Josephine Olausson draw on Kathleen Hannah and Karen O, the razor-wire guitar playing of Nicholaus Sparding and Essential Logic and Kleenex influenced saxophone of Fredrik Eriksson add up to a riotous ride, much more than the sum of their parts. When mixed with the influence of producer Woodie Taylor, Love Is All create a raw, hectic sound, seemingly without direction, but rewarding the listen further on each listen.
Competition for influence in the band perhaps contributes to the diverse mix of sounds presented. 'Turn of the Radio' takes the form of a lullaby for the disenchanted, carrying a whimsical vocal of which Bjork would be proud, whilst both 'A Dose of Love' and 'Ageing Has Never Been His Friend' are both more antagonistic, filled with slip slide guitar and dance punk beats conjuring images of a ticker tape parade in the bands home town of Gothenburg. For the most part, it's the drums and bass which decide the pace and direction of the album, and no more so than on 'Trying Too Hard', which sees Markus Görsch trying to make as much noise as possible, hammering on the toms after having his high-hat hidden in rehearsal, and Johan Lindwalls bubbly, bounce bass coming to the fore after being hidden in the mix for the majority of 'Nine Times The Same Song'.
Whilst Love Is All may wear their influences on their sleeve and draw hyperbolic reviews from many sources, their sound is a refreshing breeze, seemingly unaware of the weight of expectations upon them, presenting a childish glee and purity in their music, and a sound which can only grow with the band.
Artists in this article: Love Is All
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment