try harder

Damn - we should have reviewed this a while back, though to be fair we only got the email two weeks ago so we’re not as bad as we’ve usually been in the past. Those of you with fairly decent memories and who - sensibly I should add - make notes about such things will be all too aware of Larsen B whose debut self-released EP entitled ‘The Treasured Memories of Cecil Element’ we swooned over in missive 125. Now signed up to tastemakers Try Harder whose previous disc dispatches have seen outings for the likes of Blood Red Shoes, Redjetson and Tired Irie - all of which I’m sad to say are somehow listed as missing in action in our gaff - Larsen B return with a sumptuously trimmed (we’re assuming) trio of treasures led from the fore by the lead out ’Marilyn’. Lightly decorated amid a hustling albeit affectionate armoury of regimental-styled percussive parades that are sweetly drilled by festoons of a demurring reverie of crookedly inebriated and lolloping banjo braids, ’Marilyn’ is tastefully seasoned and disarmingly peppercorned by a sea breezing West Coast lilt that radiates and glows with an unassuming quiet grandeur that rather than arrive in your life crashing, banging and throwing its toys out of the pram would appear to be predisposed at silently creeping up behind you when you least expect it and softly unpicking your defences. Mind you, a quick peek on their myspace page throws up the absolute gem like ‘Tailgate’ which if as we suspect rightly is the accompanying flip cut and in our humble opinion the stronger of the tracks caressed as it is by a wonderfully wistful and introspective Beach Boys lull which seems to sort the entrance fee out alone while suggesting we‘ll need to nail a full copy and pry a little closer in a future missive.

losingtoday.com

back