When the band states that Pourquoi? C’est L’Amour! is an album whose songs fit together like a set of baseball cards; I get what they mean. At one extreme, albums can be eclectic affairs, musically diverse, and lyrically unconnected. At the other you have the much-maligned concept album, usually overly earnest and unnecessarily highbrow, and far too often about taking a ring to Mordor! But here, LA Need Machine gives us a set of songs that stand on their own two individual feet yet feel as if they are part of something bigger.
Not unlike chapters in a book, each has its own story to tell whilst helping drive a larger narrative, one that is broadly about life and love, hope and optimism, honesty and understanding, the everyday stuff of life turned into poetry.
Theirs has always been a great sound, one sitting in an indie-rock groove, somewhere between the singer-songwriter vibe and the full band sound, vocally rich and running all over the music landscape in search of that special sonic icing on the cake.
“I Wish I Could Fly” is escapist, running on pop-aware grooves, underpinned by acoustic delicacy and nice string touches, a song that already feels like you have been listening to it for most of your life, the very definition of a classic…just give it time.
“The Mountain” has a brilliant dynamic forged of understated passages and growling hard rock guitars, “Vincent Van Gogh” is a reminder to make the most of the fleeting moments we have in this life, and “The Hometown Heroes” is a lovely blend of crunchy guitars and a saxophone that runs between the mellifluous and the sky-searing.
In some respects, LA Need Machine reminds me of a current favorite band of mine, The Muster Point Project, a band similarly able to take the thoughts, experiences, observations, and events of everyday life and turn them into something sonically magical.
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