Lamb, Between Darkness and Wonder
This latest offering from Lamb represents a departure from previous form, as they regrettably choose to lose a great part of what got them such a cult following with the seminal debut album ‘Lamb’. The stripped-down breakbeats and melodies are still there, but the haunting emptiness and cold space that made tracks like Trans-fatty Acid classics are now swamped by heavy orchestral harmonies and layered sounds. Combined with sometimes trite upbeat lyrics, this new sound is likely to alienate long time Lamb fans as well as new listeners.
However, when the duo returns to more familiar ground there are some things worthy of inclusion amongst their best work. The powerful chorus in ‘Clouds Clear’ harks back to ‘Gorecki’, while the verses use a pleasingly simple single acoustic guitar, perfectly complemented by the unobtrusive drums. Similarly, ‘Please’ gives us a glimpse of the emotion and energy of earlier work, allowing Lou’s voice to remain distinctive above the strings that could have suffocated her in weaker tracks.
To be fair to Lamb, there are successful innovations in this album, most notably in the first track Darkness. The introduction creates a soundscape reminiscent of Underworld’s album ‘Beaucoup Fish’, overlayed with speech by Lou and disjointed, sophisticated beats from Andy. The product sounds like nothing Lamb have done before, but unfortunately this is not explored further in the album, and the next track ‘Stronger’ is somewhat lacklustre, symbolic of much of the rest of this new work – old good ideas, rarely done justice
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