LoveLikeFire : 'Tear Ourselves Away'
Release Date: 14th September 2009
Label: Heist or Hit
Prior to hitting the play button on Tear Ourselves Away I spent over a week as victim to our generation’s lust for immediate audio-gratification in the form of Lily Allen and Beyonce. Initially unmoved by LoveLikeFire I took to supporting myself on a selection of objects near the CD player so as to remain established long enough to finish listening. On second, third, fourth and pretty much every listen since, my patience has been rewarded.
Feedback bubbles and rises softly to the surface of the melancholy first track: “William, just take your toys from me I'm not so interested in playing with you / A pessimist, that's all they think of you I'm not ashamed of you / But that's what they see”. Ann Yu plays out the bruised narrative of her chosen character from youth to adulthood with the pale and powerful indignation of an ex-lover. The accompanying video is an essential component, animating various periods of rejection, heartbreak and hope for the protagonist. The girl under the bus shelter who seems to have some strong emotional link with William returns at the end but now on the other side of the shelter as if to suggest a promising shift of destiny. The city in the video is a vision of saddening shadows and grey outlines against a backdrop of retina scorching horizons perched over imposing tower blocks.
The track itself musically comes across sounding like a mash-up of the Killers and Arcade Fire. Ann Yu begins by delivering a gentle vocal sounding board before entering the longer power-textured tirade.
Like a teenager shaking free of the maternal/paternal grasp 'From A Tower' establishes itself as one of the most dynamic tracks on the album. This song also begins to make concrete, one of the problems I have with the album as a whole which derives from its almost being very good in its entirety but not quite getting there.
Lack of momentum is not something this album suffers from - the subject matter marking enigmatic frustration for the singer. Forthcoming revelation and should I say, a coming into one’s own is something the vocalist shares with Tracyanne Campbell of Camera Obscura, who went for emotionally revealing broke on her latest album, My Maudlin Career.
'Signs', is a tad sandwich-filler-esque and best traversed like the scrotum-reeking beggar on the way to work. Awesome drums however.
'I’ve Pissed Off My Friends' is very Jim Morrison ambience when the statement of the track kicks in on the chorus: “I’ve pissed Of My Friends”. That I like. The verses are an example of solid (almost 90’s) ground work American soft rock rootage.
'Boredom' is catchy, hooky and confirmed my place at a gig in a most certain and definite respect. It would definitely draw me in from the rain to the prospect of paying for gig tickets.
I’m going to take a stab in the dark and guess that Ann Yu manipulated her classical violin training to pull off this next one. This is soft and tantalisingly darkened by sardonic wit. It also sets the temperature of the rest of the album down and is well placed.
'Far From Home' sets off with the drums beating the dust into the air and leaving it long enough to settle on the musical palettes of the listener. The guitar section is basically delicious. Everything leading up to said delicious chorus is predominantly sounds like a Western musical with guitars added.
I almost put Brandon Flowers from the Killers in place of Ann Yu when listening to this. He could have pulled it off well but she pulled it off very well. It added so much extra credence to the whole scenario that I swung back my chair and fired a forefinger to the sky as if to point out the rating I would give this one before it even came down to a final conclusion.
The last track, 'Everything Must Settle' acts as the final trumpet call to freedom and does not play to the quiet album finishers I have been listening to of late.
Many listens are required. Mental digging is a prerequisite. If the singer didn’t have such laden vocal power (similar to that of Karen O) it wouldn’t be difficult to throw the idea of potential further greatness to the wind and let it blow into certain obscurity. However, I am still caught between LoveLikeFire being a combination of fairly mundane indie techniques or a band that plan to push the curtain of success open further.
Words: Phillip Cogger
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