Call it dream pop, call it indie, call it what you like but a man would have to have the hardest of hearts not to fall under the spell of Something Beginning With L's album "Beautiful Ground". It's safe to say that the London based trio – Lucy Parnell, Jen Macro and John Clayton – have categorically delivered on the promise of their EP, "The Listed Building".
With understated female vocals leading us through the subtlest of reflections on relationships and matters of the heart, Something Beginning With L mark themselves out as prime purveyors of wistful melodies and wry lyrics and, whilst sonically similar to American counterparts like La Sera, there is an underlying realism and matter of factness that brings resonance. Taking "Last Night's Party" as an example, you might be thinking of yet another escape from the bedsit mini symphony if it were not for the way that the lo-fi indie pop backing provides moral support for that boy meets girl and leaves her for someone totally unsuitable scenario. Obsession does seem something of a recurring theme for many of the songs and is never expressed in the entrancing "Unwittingly Beautiful" which, while seemingly lightweight, burns with passion.
An accomplished album, "Beautiful Ground" has both maturity and charm aplenty. That makes it a rare and precious thing indeed.