You can’t keep a good Americana down especially if you need to create a warm, feelgood album. With two thirds of the Lovell Sisters (sigh!) onboard, you know what you are getting here and the getting is good. Good value too as this is nominally just an EP but it has no less than nine songs on it.
As you might expect given their heritage, this band display a high standard of musicianship with each song showing a near sinuous understanding of rhythm. The vocals – again as you might expect – have an endearing mix of confidence and charm that, in the absence of a scientific explanation, just works. Science doesn’t really have a place in matters of the heart anyway. There’s a lot that is conventional here too with “Long Hard Fall” and “We Intertwine” showing Dixie Chicks influences and you can also see “Shadows of Yourselves” making itself right at home on the radio.
So far so good, I hear you say and indeed you would be right in saying that. However, it is a fact that you need a bit of magic to stand out from the crowd. You need a song that an audience can take to their collective hearts. A song that won’t leave their ears and that song is “Burglary”. A deftly lyrical and metaphorical take on crimes of the heart, it stands tall above a crop of fine songs just waiting to be harvested.
My ears liked this album. My brain liked this album. If I were a younger man then my underpants would have liked this album. That’s three out of three so the future bodes well for Larkin Poe and you can quote me on that!