Everyone likes being in love. It's just one of those things. It's instinctive, there's no way of avoiding it. However not everyone likes songs about being in love. Maybe they're too cheesy, or too miserable, or, well, just a bit unrealistic.
Though a lot of the time you can be in this little ecstatic bubble and spend days lying about in bed smiling and sh*t, quite a lot of the time there is something else. And it's a bit dark. It's not very often you find this balance of love and fear realistically conveyed in music, and maybe you wouldn't want to, it would probably sound a bit confused.
Lou Rhodes second solo album 'Bloom' sounds anything but confused. She manages to capture both the power and fragility of it all, sometimes just in her voice and it's pretty hard not to be drawn in and totally enchanted by it.
The album drips off (sorry) with 'Rain' which is a clear indication of the way things are going to go; acoustic guitars and drums etc. cleverly emulating the sound of rain but not in a light drizzle sense but an actual downpour. If you've heard Lou Rhodes first album 'Beloved One' some might accuse it of being a bit 'light drizzle' style folk in places (still it was nominated for the a Mercury music award), Bloom however really isn't that. There are no Lamb-esque (Lamb being her old band) electronic sounds but there is lots of Lamb-esque energy using lots of double bass and strings making songs like 'All We Are' and 'They Say' utterly epic. Don't get me wrong though its not all darkness; 'Never Loved a Man' is a sweet story, with its use of the xylophone making it almost magical. In fact all the way through they're using extra instruments that keep things interesting, complementing her voice perfectly.
I keep doing it; I keep having another listen to try give you a better description. But each time I put it on, her voice takes over and I forget about writing all together.
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