Paperjam

So For Your Thrills... by Le Reno Amps

Music // Nick // 14th April 2007

OK, first up, apologies that I haven’t got around to writing this review until now. I could go through the usual excuses – family, work, repeats of Scrubs on TV – but it is mostly down to sheer old fashioned laziness. However in this interim of inactivity I’ve actually managed to listen to the album a couple of times all the way through (rather than the usual flick forward after the first thirty seconds if I get bored – oops I’m not supposed to admit that reviewers do that) so I feel I may have given it a bit more of a chance than usual. I’ll also put in a bit of a review spoiler up front. If you are a member of Le Reno Amps, ignore the first track review. I like the rest of the album.

First of all, I would like to congratulate the guys – this is the first album for a while that I have listened to first time that I didn’t reach for the skip button until the end. In fact I only was ready to move on just before the last track, which then came on and hooked me in so I kept listening. So on to the review.

Track 1: Dawn Says
Unfortunately for me this is simply awful. I know exactly what is trying to be achieved here – I’ve tried to write something similar, with even worse results – so kudos for trying, but sorry no cigar. Any song that has lines as cheesy as ‘Dawn lights up the sky, with a tear in her eye. Sometimes we cry when we smile, sometimes we smile when we cry “ needs to be taken out and shot. To add insult to injury, if you’re going to have a ‘little drummer boy’ snare then at least vary it a little so it doesn’t sound like it’s a loop – although I know it isn’t. Sorry, that’s just the way I feel.

Track 2: Poison Letter
Starts off with a bit where I think the singer was not quite sure what minor he was trying to hit – more a producer problem than anything – but then the guitars kick in, and it becomes a bouncy little number. The chorus has great horns that you don’t expect which is a nice juxtaposition of the lyrics. At this point I completely forgive the first track, and love the little acoustic guitar and drum break at the end.

Track 3: Beautiful
Can be summed up in the line “why did god make you so beautiful, and why’d he make me so ugly”. Now that’s the kind of lyrical juxtaposition we want, particularly when it’s done with sweet harmony. This track sounds like some of the more countrified WonderStuff, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Track 4: Stop the Clocks
Jingle jangle start, wasn’t sure what was going on here. Still not sure. As a reviewer you tend to compare and contrast, and I first thought a bit of Levellers, but it isn’t crusty, has more of a Squeeze feel, and why should I bother comparing anyway? It’s something that I’d be happy to bounce around in a sweaty bar to.

Track 5: Gathering Ash
I’m a sucker for a glittery stardust guitar like this starts with - it’s pretty, and then moves to a staccato chorus, quickly followed by a nice waltz feel main section. With the mix of acoustic and electric, slightly edgy lyrics (“you climbed a mountain, and I fell down a hole”) this is becoming more and more like the WonderStuff, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

Track 6: Holly Wouldn’t Have me
Starts off sounding like a piss-take of a country song, and carries on that way. Whether it is meant to be or not, I like it, as the lyrics continue to prove that track 1 was a complete aberration.

Track 7: Tree House
A classic chord sequence, carried off well, with nice harmonies. It’s also good to hear a real accordion, if for only a short stab. By this point in the album I’m really drawn into the overall feel. I’m starting to notice that each little break and endpiece is carefully, lovingly written. Songs don’t just stop.

Track 8: Deserted Sons
This track is a complete mystery to me. I have no idea what it is about, but it is sticking in my head like a bad cold. Even the little dual electric guitar bit in the middle, which like so much of this album sounds like you’ve heard it before, but can’t place it – though isn’t that the mark of good writing?

Track 9: Radio
Doesn’t make much of a mark on my memory, apart from some great guitar sounds. Not a bad song, but didn’t engage me enough. I would imagine this would be far better live, as it sounds like a “lighter” song to me.

Track 10: Patience
Starts as an acoustic French waltz, with a band that kicks in. Makes me want to dance, has perfect harmonies, stupid carnival arpeggios, a weird ‘sur la seine’ break, all in the space of less than two minutes. I still haven’t worked out all the lyrics other than that they seem to be quite spiteful (good!) but to be honest that might take something away from it. This is the kind of oddball fragment I love.

Track 11: How you did me wrong
The horns are back for the chorus – and fit. The overall framework of jumpy acoustic still continues, but I think it is worth pointing out that there are enough melodies here to make the agnostic keep listening. For the old cynic, if a song can go ‘ba-da-baa-ba-baa’ and you still like it, it can’t be bad.

Track 12: Moving to LA
OK, this sounds like straight line alt.folk, and it is, but there is nothing wrong with that. As stated earlier in the review, this is the point at which I was about to press the button to move on to another album. Not that this is a bad song – you just want something different sometimes.

Track 13: Wound Up
I can see why this is the single. There are some good songs (and good singles) on the album, but this is the most obviously saleable. At first listen this is early Elvis Costello mixed with the basic energy approach of the Wedding Present, but as with the rest of this record Le Reno Amps have stamped a little of their own whatever it is on the show.

In summary:
I listen to a lot of new albums, and the vast majority fall under the ‘indie guitar’ kind of category, which I am so utterly bored with. How many piss poor versions of the Velvet Underground / Nirvana (depending on which cult you are talking too) can you cope with? I also listen to a lot of alt.country, as that seems to be the only other genre that we’re allowed to be cool with, but I would dearly like to throw this all away and just deal with music.
This album is not the answer to my hope for a crossover. However it is a great deal of fun, and has a hundred times more variety than anything you will get on the high-street. If you are going to give some kind of star rating then this would be a four. Fives are reserved for perfection, so that means this is pretty damn good.