Listen to enough music, and eventually the lines between novelty, shtick, fallacy and fanaticism begin to get a bit blurry. As record labels worry evermore about their bottom lines and market shares and attempt to compensate by releasing more material than the other guys, the possibility for genuine tripe getting more attention than it deserves becomes increasingly real. How could it not? When every concept of a band is getting unloaded, there's bound to be a couple dogs in the lot. So how does one tell the difference between a hit and a miss if one only gives oneself a micro-second's-worth of time to decide? In a leisure industry, how does one tell the birth of a new, glimmering star from a flash in the pan? It's not easy but, in the case of The Good Lovelies and their third full-length album (first for ADA/Warner), Let The Rain Fall, the quality of the material is impossible to miss or mistake. This time, the roots trio has everything locked in line tightly, and their brisk, energetic delivery is the first thing that hits listeners.
Now, listeners will be able to mark some similarities between The Good Lovelies and some other acts kicking around the scene – most notably The Puppini Sisters. Like the Sisters, The Good Lovelies go out of their way to pull the trim, upbeat, all-female and vocally-driven sort of pop that was pretty common during the Second World War into the new millennium but, unlike the Sisters (who use the idea as a sort of kitschy, retro shtick), The Good Lovelies use that sound only as far as those acts in the Forties did; they don't add a bunch of perfectly timely-for-this-day-and-age extras to make it cheesy– that would be like adding fins to a Chevy Volt. Instead, the band illustrates the timelessness of the sound – not how the sound could be applied to a brand new form. It's a very endearing idea and, from the beginning of album-opener “Made For Rain,” the band makes a very attractive prospect of it as singer/instrumentalists Caroline Brooks, Kerri Ough and Sue Passmore present a very retro three-part harmony that still sounds fresh, because there isn't an ounce of irony in it; here, the band wears its' heart on its' collective sleeve and doesn't mind any sort of fashion. With that assertion clearly made for listeners, The Good Lovelies continue on their unique path and expose the richness of their form as songs like “Free,” “Backyard,” “Kiss Me In The Kitchen” and a cover of K-Os' “Crabbuckit” (which strips the emcee's kitschy hook from the song and accentuates the implied sepia-tone in it instead) all take listeners back to a period when technology didn't make songs sound good, gifted singers did. It sounds almost contrary to say it, but what The Good Lovelies do on Let The Rain Fall isn't particularly complicated – they just let their natural ability to craft fine folks songs shine and illustrate how rare that is in the process.
Artist:
www.goodlovelies.com/
www.myspace.com/goodlovelies
Album:
Let The Rain Fall comes out on March 1, 2011. Pre-order it here on Amazon .
