Album Review: Lola Colt – Away From The Water
Away From The Water
Released 27th October 2014
Words: Sean Regan
London band Lola Colt’s debut album Away From The Water takes us back in time to the 60s psychedelic sound, but gives it a shot in the arm thanks to some skilful song writing and production. There’s a plethora of psych festivals and labels across the country right now, which is helping bands like this that might otherwise have ended up sliding through the cracks for being too niche or retro. The bands within the scene have mountains of old vinyl to turn to for inspiration, giving us a rich variety of music thanks to the endless ways of slicing up their predecessors’ ideas. It seems Lola Colt are digging deep from bands like Jefferson Airplane and The Doors, with maybe just a bit of Patti Smith to bring things up to the 70s, which is pretty much where most good music ends for these guys.
Away From The Water opens with a tambourine that shakes like a rattlesnake and a tremolo guitar shimmering like the heat haze somewhere in the Wild West. The fuzz laden, dissonant guitars wrap themselves tightly around the brooding vocals of Gun Overbye, a fitting name for a singer whose band’s name is taken from a 60s Western film. The track brims with menace and conjures up The End by The Doors, especially when the Vox organ kicks in towards the finish.
The band has often cited the influence that various movie soundtracks have had on their music and with each track you feel that they’re composing the score to their own imaginary film. It’s very effective and listening to them conjures up all manner of claustrophobic one horse towns and sprawling desert highways. A lot of time has been spent getting this sound just right, it’s coherent and there are enough ideas and embellishments to stop the album getting too boring, though with such a strong sound the songs themselves can get a little lost amongst the production. There’s also a tendency for the guitars to dominate the recordings which is a shame as Gun has a great voice with interesting sounding lyrics that I find a little difficult to make out.
The album is a fairly cerebral affair, crammed to bursting with lots of interesting ideas, much of which will reveal itself on repeated listens. There’s no stand out singles, but this is more the kind of album you’d want to listen to from start to finish anyway, so best add this to your vinyl collection to help with this. To sum up; this is a well realised and great sounding record that feels fresh even if it doesn’t break much new ground. Definitely one to get lost in the desert with.
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