Song, by Toad

I threatened this one a little while ago, and it is lovely indeed.  It’s dreamier and more uneasily atmospheric than their gorgeous Lament For Children and as such took me ages to get into.  Regular reader DC mentioned on his radio show The Waiting Room that he too had been initially disappointed and needed to work his way into the album.

I concur entirely, and promise that once you do this you will be properly rewarded because this is a terrific record.  I’ve mentioned their Sufjan Stevens similarities in earlier chatter and this holds even more on this release, although they have a sort of underlying tension to their sound where Stevens is more winsomely elaborate.

It slides from the lovely to the uneasy, but once you let it seep in it is truly arresting music.  Song in ¾ is superb, straddling The Decemberists and the Builders & the Butchers, with whom Loch Lomond are soon to release a split 12″ – really fucking exciting news.  All Your Friends Are Smiling has a plaintive violin that comes straight from the Scottish music I expected when I first heard the band’s name.

Other stuff, the lovely opener Carl Sagan for example, or Field Report sits in the well established North-West folk-pop area that has emerged in the last few years, and is as good an example of it as I have heard.  Mandolins, fiddles and a lovelorn folk rhythm provide the backdrop, often a melancholy one but never maudlin.  On top of this Ritchie Young’s somewhat nasal but nevertheless lovely voice potters along and, as with Lament For Children, knows just when to stretch its legs and provide something with more desperation, more pathos.  This particular talent turns a lovely album into a wonderfully engagingly and emotionally vital one which I highly recommend you get your grubby little mitts on as soon as you can.

Loch Lomond – Northern, Knees, Trees and Lights
Loch Lomond – Song in ¾

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