The Loves - Three & Liechtenstein - Survival Strategies In A Modern World - Reviewed

The Loves - Three
Liechtenstein - Survival Strategies In A Modern World

Whereas you could almost bet your mortgage that Lacrosse's Bandages for the Heart is going to be my favourite pop album of the year two other bands coincidentaly starting with the letter L may well give it a good run for its money.

First up Slumberland Records Liechtenstein with their album/ mini LP Survival Strategies In A Modern World.


A delightfully short nine tracks that suceed in taking the Shop Assistants template and warping it only just enough to make it their ow. Jangly, melodic and catchy as can be, occasionally taking the unexpected route away from the obvious verse chorus verse, but not enough to spoil the fun.

Sounding not too distant from Heavenly and the more reverberated, less distorted parts of the Aislers Set, ie. if they had rerecorded My Boyfriend Could Be a Spanish Man during the Mission Bells sessions, you might begin to get an idea where Liechtenstein are coming from.

Postcard is a glorious stand out with its repeating "Don't leave the cat on its own".


Perhaps better and a most likely contestant to Lacrosse is the new offering from the long loved The Loves, inventively entitled Three, this is the Loves third album to date and perhaps their strongest, if not their strongest, it certainly contains some of their best songs to date.

Ode to Coca Cola and Sweet Sister Delia are fine lessons in the art of writing a pop song, and yes I of all people am always interested in hearing something new and love the idea of stretching music to it's limits but you can rarely beat good old pop, and if that means stealing parts from elsewhere then please do go help yourself. If it ain't broke...

A little bit TRex, a little bit Beach Boys, a little bit fantastic. Both previous downloadle singles, One Two Three and the Ex-Gurlfriend feature and are lovely to hear once again along with the aforementioned favourites and the quite wonderful two and half minutes of pop perfection of You Don't Have To.

One for the appreciative few to wind down the windows, open the sunroof and drive steadily, bopping your head much to the chagrin of confused fellow drivers.

Put simply, i love The Loves and really you should too.

Liechtenstein - Postcard mp3
Liechtenstein - Roses in the Park mp3
Source = Pop Tarts Sucked Toast

The Loves - Ex Gurlfriend EP Download
Myspace

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart Session & Interview

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Everything With You (Fortuna Pop!)
The Pains are back and with a worthy contender indeed for what was always going to be a hard task, following up the excellent Come Saturday single, a clear favourite to be amongst my favourite tracks of the year.
Everything With You is three minutes of JAMC fuzzy pop brilliance, culminating in a great breakdown just before the two minute mark when the guitar solo comes in right on time to take you through the final minute and into the closing chorus. Sublime.
The self titled flipside is another slice of pop loveliness stomping its way right to the forefront of your mind with its "we will never die chorus" guarenteed to have you singing along.

Myspace
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart -Everything With You mp3
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Come Saturday mp3

LAST FM: Imagine if the Ramones traded in their leather jackets for anoraks, or Stephen Pastel actually threw Aggi off the bridge and married Black Tambourine’s Pam Berry and had four babies that formed a pop band.

Meet The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, a New York four-piece who plays dreamy, noisy POP with boy/girl vocals, blissful melodies and blistering drums.

For everyone who is missing them if you're quick you can listen again to their interview with Steve Lamacq on BBC 6music here. Click on Wednesday and forward to around 1hr 40mins in and you're there. I think it may only be up for one more day before it's overwritten by Gary Crowley, so don't delay!

While they were here the Pains also recorded an interview and an acoustic session with the wonderful Samanthi on Q radio, originally broadcast last Friday the 19th but which you can hear again here. You'll need to forward to 1hr 8mins into the show. That just leaves the session they recorded for John Kennedy at XFM - we don't have a date for its broadcast yet but we're told it'll be sometime in January. As soon as we have an exact date we'll let you know.

Finally on the Pains front, they've just made an ace video for their current single "Everything With You". It's shot entirely on Super 8 by their friend Art Boomparn and you can watch it here

For old times sakes, a classic track M.I.A - Sunshowers Mp3

and something that may be of interest Pitchf*rks Top 100 Tracks of 2008

And a fairly depressing/ comical story of my hometown