HOME

REVIEWS

- RSS Feed

SoundsXP Presents

To be announced

On Our iPod

Various - IndieTracks Indiepop comp (album)

Dolly Mixture - Everything & More (box set)

The Mynabirds - Numbers Don't Lie (Myspace track)

Shrag: Life! Death! Prizes! (album)

Magic Kids - Memphis (album)

Trimdon Grange Explosion - Raider 7"

One Happy Island - S/T (album)

Various - A Phase We’re Going Through (Fruits de Mer LP)

Specific Heats - Cursed! (album)

Manhattan Love Suicides - Dandelion Radio Session (album)

Latest Forum Posts

Album Review

The Left Outsides
And Colours In Between self-released CD-R

Article written by Ged M - Aug 1, 2007

I love this record for its melancholy end-of-autumn-pull-your-coat-tighter-around-you feel. Arising from the ashes of the Eighteenth Day of May, the Left Outsides have maintained that band’s fascination with folk-rock and psychedelia but added their own imprint. Their songs have a glacial exterior which eventually melts to reveal a glowing heart, smouldering with a childlike passion for secret gardens, lighthouses in winter and affairs that are only finally consummated after death. This is ethereal, introspective and largely acoustic, its American influences inflected with a touch of very English whimsy: the record ends on the sound of Big Ben’s chimes and Alison reciting a sly Dorothy Parker poem.

Though they’ve developed their own sound, the songs have a welcome variety: ethereal Nico-esque folk music (‘Neon Rainbow’) is followed by wistful Barrett-style psych-pop (‘The Chameleon’) and an introspective drone-pop sound (‘A Kingdom of My Own’) that would neatly hang on the 'nu-gazing' hook that journalists have recently invented for the sons and daughters of shoegazing. The two well-chosen covers also have their own dark radiance: ‘Glad It’s Over’, originally by San Francisco psych outfit The Living Children, has an end-of-Summer-of-Love melancholy feel while Mark sings the Thirteenth Floor Elevators’ ‘Splash One’ with a contemplative air until Alison’s cello zaps the mood with huge sweeps of sound.

‘And Colours in Between’ is an album of gentle but robust psych-folk, its feelings burning quietly but fiercely, getting brighter and hotter the darker and colder it grows outside. One of the best records I’ve heard this year.

Links:
http://www.theleftoutsides.com

Share |

Select Language English German Greek Portuguese (BR) Russian

Comments (0)


Name

E-mail (Will not appear online)

Homepage

Title

Comment

This comment form is powered by GentleSource Comment Script. It can be included in PHP or HTML files and allows visitors to leave comments on the website.

LATEST FEATURES