From the opening bars of 'Je T’aime, Baby' you get the feeling that Technicolour might be quite a special album. The first song on Cardiff’s The Loves second album sounds so authentically like it could be taken straight from a Velvet Underground album that you almost check to see if it’s a cover.
After seven minutes of this fantastically sparse and atmospheric first number that slowly builds into a psychedelic instrumental, comes a couple of 2 and a half minute pop songs that sound like they must have been recorded a good 40 years ago. 'I My She Love You' is somewhere between The Pixies’ 'Here Comes Your Man' and the Kingsmen’s 'Louie Louie', while 'She’ll Break Your Heart…Again' is a lost 60s girl group classic. After the first three tracks you are firmly caught on Technicolour’s pop hooks and it is already apparent that resistance is futile.
Seven years and (at last estimate) 25 members after Simon Love founded the band, he and the current line up have crafted a collection of pop gems. 'The Rainbow Connection' and its breathy vocals is a VU-inspired ballad, which, along with the lonely 'So Sad' and 'How Does It Feel To Be Loved?' (which itself references the same band’s 'Beginning To See The Light') gives some much-needed respite from the barrage of instant pop classics that makes up the remainder of the album.
Two years in the making, Technicolour is aptly titled, with a rainbow of sonic hues to outdo any dream coat. Listening to it is like having your very own pop time machine and The Loves sound like they have made a few stops on the way. They’ve been surfing USA with the Beach Boys, jamming in the Factory with the Velvet Underground and out on the street with the Shangri-Las, before somehow ending up back at Frank Black’s house listening to Monkees records with The Ramones.
Along with the cracking opening trio, the highlights of Technicolour are the singalong rock’n’rollers 'Xs and Os' and '(Gimme Gimme) The Good Times'. The former is a pick me up for the broken-hearted: “Do all the things that you feel you should do / But not another 100 hours with the beer bottle blues / When all the women in the world can’t undo all your bad news / Xs and Os for you”. Like The Ramones at their most melodic with great backing vocals it is 1m52s of pop perfection. '(Gimme Gimme) The Good Times' is similarly upbeat and the blow out that the end of the album needs. By the end of it you are already cracking open a beer with a smile firmly on your face: “All the things that were on your mind / Close the door and leave them all behind / Love the love you give, stop the negative and gimme gimme the good times”. Having said that, you’ve probably been smiling for quite a while by track 11, for the line “singing sunshine in the summertime” (from 'Summertime') pretty much sums The Loves and this album up.
That there is little real substance below the surface of this record doesn’t actually do it any harm. Sometimes music is about pushing the boundaries, sometimes rebellion, changing the world or a thousand other things, but sometimes it is there just to put a smile on your face and a spring in your step. This is an album that does that. There is no angst (despite the band’s apparent revolving door of members), just great tunes and almost everything about Technicolour works. From the title and sleeve design that reflect the eclecticism and sunshine of the music, the under-production, the way they manage to pull off sounding like some of the most influential bands of all time, right down to the Rita Lee quote on the sleeve: “We’ve heard it all and we’ve used it all”. It is referential without being indulgent, psychedelic without being overblown, indiepop without being painfully twee and a little bit French without being, well, at all French. Get ready to tap your feet, nod your head and dance like its any time in pop history you want – The Loves are here in glorious Technicolour.
****
First published on rockfeedback.com. See it here.
No comments:
Post a Comment