Review:

on 2011-03-05 CharlesMartel Said:

Now here was a band who promised much and delivered little. In some ways they were the epitome of classic British guitar driven simple catchy pop. That is a style of music which, as long is there is electricity, will never go out of fashion. People try and kill it off, but as soon as their back is turned, up it pops again and goes onto outlive its erstwhile assassin and replacement.

At the time the La's emerged onto the music scene, jangle pop was as close as it was ever going to get to the apex of anything. The La's took the style of the moment, but looked backwards towards its antecedents and its forerunners. For all the modernity in the way they went about making music, the La's found their real musical inspiration in the sixties. The result was a series of short songs, little in the way of flourish and superfluity and much in the way of spontaneity. It is as if the band had set out to make music in a particular way and had ended up with this.

The La's hailed from Liverpool and its surroundings and joined the pop indie label Go-Discs in the late 80's after making a name for themselves on that city's club circuit. The band's live performances marked them out as special and the band always seemed reinvigorated by the prospect of a live performance, For some reason the first album took over two years to emerge and in many ways was a remastered, re-recorded greatest hits album as it featured many of their previous singles reworked for the album. The result was a mixture of disappointment and acclaim. Critics loved it, the band did not. Lee Mavers, the band's driving force, felt it lacked the energy of their live releases and earlier, raw cuts. A falling out occurred with Go Discs and the band faded after Mavers destroyed the only copy of the master-tapes of the second album.

If for nothing else, the band and the album will forever be remembered for "There She Goes". A purer moment of sublime pop pleasure from the nineties is hard to imagine. Indeed, were it not for this track, I fear the album and the band would have faded without race. Of the remaining tracks, the only ones which stand out are "Doledrum" and "Looking Glass". The rest seem to fade into a miasmic haze of indistinct components and quality.

The CD I have attempts to make up for that with the inclusion of some alternative versions and live cuts on an extended CD. But if anything the production on them is even worse than on the rest of the album. The second CD seems to promise so much but in the end delivers so little. Indeed, if the album and the band had an epitaph on their gravestone, that would probably be it. Above all, I find it very hard to get worked up about this to any degree.

When all is said and done, "There She Goes" is the highlight and remains the best reason I can think of - come to that the only reason I can think of - for getting this album. The rest of the CD has its moments, but they are few and far between and would not, of themselves, justify shelling out on this album. If it weren't for that track, the album would be more of a filler than a leader sounding, as it does, somewhat hollow and even dated beyond the obvious intention of it being a retro album. Still, it is a reasonable starting point for an exploration of what would eventually morph into Britpop, even though it seems to substantiate my belief that this was a barren time for music.
Rating: 5/10