After the release of the sprightly Romance Romance in 2008, we thought we had the Land Lovers sound all figured out. Scuzzy guitars, cheeky lyrics, wobbly melodies, chirpy choruses. Easy to get your head around, and even easier to enjoy.
For precisely this reason, the opening track on the band’s 11-track follow-up Confidants comes as quite a shock. The song, also called ‘Confidants’, is less a quirky, chiming, lo-fi ditty, and more a swooning, vintage-sounding lullaby. Vocalist Pádraig Cooney swings with all the cool of an aging crooner, and some melancholy violin soon conjures up images of retro microphones and red upholstery.
‘The Pocket Orchestra’s Death Song’ is another surprise. A passionate, guitar-led lament, it betrays the quintet’s earlier trend-friendly sound, and could very well have been born in any decade in pop.
Of course, there’s plenty of the signature Land Lovers jangle here too. ‘Gravedigger’ is based around a series of dreamy ‘Oh Darling’s and ‘Honey Pie’s, and the chirpy ‘The Cinema Bell’ packs a serious lo-fi punch. ‘Is Nowhere Far Away Anymore?’ is practically a waltz (albeit, one in which the protagonist curses some pesky kids from Tallaght IT), and Cooney flaunts his uncompromisable sense of humour on the brilliantly-titled ‘Legion Of Saps’.
Elsewwhere, Cooney shrewdly hints at some of the band’s influences by namedropping “Joe Jackson, Prefab Sprout and Tears For Fears”. I would have said The Shirelles, Squeeze and Buddy Holly, but the singer is certainly right to suggest that Confidants is a proud miscellany of decade-spanning pop influences.
Lyrically, anything goes, from death (‘Terry & Julie’) through football (‘Gravedigger’) to superhuman teachers (‘Born In Armour’). Confidants is not a concept album, but rather a collection of concept songs. With each new track, Cooney slips into a peculiar new character, all carried out with admirable flair.
In parts, you could be listening to Now: 1957, in others, the second album by hot young Chicagoans Smith Westerns. The fact that there’s neither a ‘Peggy Sue’, nor a ‘Weekend’ among these 11 tracks doesn’t do Land Lovers any favours, but by no means does it stop Confidants from being a fascinating little record.