GutterPutter

It’s been a while since I’ve last wrote about any new records as the wave of new music so far haven’t been the most interesting. I have an act or two that I would like to try & write on, yet they haven’t won my curiosity over to the point of devoting an article to them. What doesn’t slip past me is the Lathums, yet another one of the up & coming acts in the British scene with a speciality in producing poppy indie rock songs. On October 1, their debut album is released with one big achievement – that being that it reaches the position of 1 in the UK’s Official Charts thanks to being signed to Island Records.

Although How Beautiful Life Can Be had only popped into my radar a few days ago from a news article about how the UK is booming in its indie scene, my first impression lies in how it reminds me of the ‘indie landfill’ criticism. Many may dislike the rising popularity of the underground scene as being kitschy in its long-term impact & how it only devalues the creativity that can flourish within the prospect of working without commercial constraint. While I do agree with how it may block the artsy boundary that entails independent music, to infer that it’s inauthentic is one that I feel withers more with each listen. What the Lathum’s debut lack in pure imaginative take, it makes up for the certain investment that each member feels in making their music.

When you take a listen to the album for the first time, you can pick up on the well-gelled production. By starting ‘Circle of Faith’ with a fade-out of the building wave of ringing guitar notes, it feels reasonably tempting to buy into the wealth of magic that the record holds. The mixing that helps to stick the guitar and the drumming out with a sense of airiness creates an impression of the 80s’ jangle pop (The Smiths being the big mention for that). The overdubbing of vocalist/guitarist Alex Moore’s singing in the chorus helps to further add to the appeal of the record without coming off as being extravagant. In some tracks like ‘Fight On’, ‘The Great Escape’, or ‘I Won’t Lie’, the nostalgic charisma in the mixing reaches a point where you may well think of it as a revival of the 50s-60s rockability scene.

The performance weren’t also too bad, if they’re rather derivative of a pop-based rock band. Moore shows a nice variety of direction he can take in his vocals like the rapid-pace singing in ‘I See Your Ghost’ or the melodic, folksy manner in ‘I’ll Never Forget The Time I Spent With You’. You can get a chance to also hear some acoustic guitars in ‘I’ll Get By’ & ‘How Beautiful Life Can Be’ while the piano ballad in the ‘The Redemption of Sonic Beauty’ adds a bit more texture to the album’s instrumental. ‘I Know That Much’ & ‘Artificial Screens’ both serves as a kind of homage to the power ballads & the hard rocks of the past. I would like to give a mild compliment to Scott Concepcion’s lead guitar playing for its keen energy as does Ryan Durrans’s drumming. There might not be a whole load of technical prowess to be seen, yet the fun vibrates in each strumming of the chords.

There are two big holes that I recognise that sours up the so-far-positive comments to being surface-layer enjoyment. They comprise of the overt lack of experimentation in the structure or even the sonic direction that the band had taken in while the lyrics is mostly an abstract kind of bore. The majority of the tracks follow the same verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure without adding a certain spice that allows it to endure well beyond its genre spot once you dig deeper into what the underground scene has to offer. Going back to the titular track for an example, there’s so many repetition of ‘life’ without any brakes or poignant lines that it can go from being a guilty-pleasure kind of cheesy to being annoying. ‘I’ll Never Forget The Time I Spent With You’ is another one o the lyrical blunders as it consists mostly of Moore professing about his love to someone… by falling into a lot of cliches without subversions, remaking, or even an ounce of tongue-in-cheek tone. Virtually all of the tracks in How Beautiful Life Can Be is rife with these two issues & while I do admire some of the charm within how the band plays, it’s otherwise an equivalent to fast food. Not that it’s bad, but it rings a bit hollow when compared to their contemporaries.

Being the odd one out in the exploding experimental post-punk scene, the Lathums doesn’t have a whole load of innovation nor are they the most ‘artistic’. Their music isn’t the most exciting thing in the world, most of the band member didn’t stick out like a wunderkind, even the lyrics can feel too simplistic. If there’s one thing that you can give props to them for, it’s that these flaws may not matter too much for them. For all they now, they’re in it for the fun of it & throughout the record, the whole performance rings it for all its lack of in-depth tinkering. Maybe there is something about the band that tells us to not take life too seriously & enjoy it while you can. I can’t deny that I feel the same way even after a couple of listen to it.