 |
| WWD.com |
LANY - LANY (Polydor Records)
Released: June 30th, 2017
After multiple EP releases, LANY is here with their self-titled debut album. The members of LANY include Paul Klein, Charles Priest, and Jake Goss. I have never heard of this Los Angeles based indie-pop band prior to this release, nor have I listened to any of their EPs, so I truly had no idea what to expect from this album. After a handful of listens, there are definitely standout tracks, but there are also ones that need room for improvement.
To start, this record is pretty lengthy for a debut album. Ranging 16 songs and 57 minutes, LANY is providing their audience with a lot of material to listen to. The concept of having any album that long isn't primarily an issue if you can keep the listener interested from start to finish, but with LANY's sound, I found that length to be quite harmful to their debut release.
The first half of this album is awesome. With sonics comparable to The 1975 or The Japanese House, the melodies are very danceable with infectious chorus'. From the lead track "Dumb Stuff", we get this wavy arpeggiator melody with a simple kick drum pattern that eventually blooms into this quick, high energy song. That high-energy vibe is continued on the next track "The Breakup". Tight and playful percussion with these very reverb'd out guitars highlight the track nicely.
In terms of the singles on this record, they were pretty solid. "Super Far" starts with these sparse synths stabs with gentle claps which develops into this awesome and chill indie-pop track with help from a smooth bass arp melody.
"ILYSB" is by far the best on the album and my personal favorite. It contains an extremely catchy chorus, wide synth hits, and simple percussion. Paul Klein's vocals sit on top perfectly. A very easy-going start and then the song expands on the second chorus. These all add up to form a nearly perfect radio indie-pop track. The touch of guitar play throughout is a fantastic touch.
"13" is a very stripped down and nearly acoustic track. Probably my least favorite single only because the melody and instrumentation became extremely stale after only a couple listens.
"Good Girls" is the most danceable single, containing simple drumming with a groovy rhythm guitar section. It also has this synth melody that appears right after the chorus that is very dance inspired. It is a pretty decent dance/indie-pop track.
Also from the first half of the record, "Flowers on the Floor" is an awesome song. I find the primary synth-arp melody to be extremely catchy and fun. The instrumentation provides a somewhat nocturnal or ghostly vibe throughout the verses while still being bright and slick. The track opens up in the chorus section, with an assist from a mini guitar section near the latter half of the track. "Purple Teeth" is one of the only few that I enjoy on the second half of the album. Again, we find very happy and playful synth-sounds combined with these drum machine beats that create these very gentle indie tracks.
Outside of these tracks, not too much stuck out to me nor impressed me. I found songs like "Hericane", "Pancakes", and "Tampa" to be pretty boring and dull, either due to their instrumentation or bland and sappy lyricism. "So, Soo Pretty" is extremely reminiscent, sounding just like an instrumental that I could easily hear from The 1975. It also seems that LANY truly wore their inspirations on their sleeves, specifically towards the second half of the album. They lost their energetic indie-pop sound and fell into this set of songs that seemed very boring and forced.
Overall, not a bad debut from LANY. The first half of the album was extremely enjoyable. I love their sound that they produced for the first 30 minutes of the album, I thought it was very high energy, danceable, and poppy. But they fell flat towards the second half of the record, barely appealing to me in anyway. If this project was shortened, and more concise, it would've made for a fantastic debut. It was a decent album overall, but it seemed to contain some extra baggage that really didn't need to be included. The lyrics throughout were all romantically based and definitely corny or hackneyed at times, which became repetitive about halfway through. This is a band I am going to keep my eye on because I do like their indie-pop sound and I would love to see how they develop in the future. Listen below...
Listen:
LANY - ILYSB
LANY - Flowers on the Floor
LANY - Super Far
Rating: 6/10
Genre: Indie-Pop/Pop/"Tumblr-Pop"/Dream-Pop/Alt-Pop/Electronic-Pop
Fav Songs: Dumb Stuff, The Breakup, Super Far, Overtime, Flowers on the Floor, ILYSB, Good Girls, Purple Teeth, It Was Love
To start, this record is pretty lengthy for a debut album. Ranging 16 songs and 57 minutes, LANY is providing their audience with a lot of material to listen to. The concept of having any album that long isn't primarily an issue if you can keep the listener interested from start to finish, but with LANY's sound, I found that length to be quite harmful to their debut release.
The first half of this album is awesome. With sonics comparable to The 1975 or The Japanese House, the melodies are very danceable with infectious chorus'. From the lead track "Dumb Stuff", we get this wavy arpeggiator melody with a simple kick drum pattern that eventually blooms into this quick, high energy song. That high-energy vibe is continued on the next track "The Breakup". Tight and playful percussion with these very reverb'd out guitars highlight the track nicely.
In terms of the singles on this record, they were pretty solid. "Super Far" starts with these sparse synths stabs with gentle claps which develops into this awesome and chill indie-pop track with help from a smooth bass arp melody.
"ILYSB" is by far the best on the album and my personal favorite. It contains an extremely catchy chorus, wide synth hits, and simple percussion. Paul Klein's vocals sit on top perfectly. A very easy-going start and then the song expands on the second chorus. These all add up to form a nearly perfect radio indie-pop track. The touch of guitar play throughout is a fantastic touch.
"13" is a very stripped down and nearly acoustic track. Probably my least favorite single only because the melody and instrumentation became extremely stale after only a couple listens.
"Good Girls" is the most danceable single, containing simple drumming with a groovy rhythm guitar section. It also has this synth melody that appears right after the chorus that is very dance inspired. It is a pretty decent dance/indie-pop track.
Also from the first half of the record, "Flowers on the Floor" is an awesome song. I find the primary synth-arp melody to be extremely catchy and fun. The instrumentation provides a somewhat nocturnal or ghostly vibe throughout the verses while still being bright and slick. The track opens up in the chorus section, with an assist from a mini guitar section near the latter half of the track. "Purple Teeth" is one of the only few that I enjoy on the second half of the album. Again, we find very happy and playful synth-sounds combined with these drum machine beats that create these very gentle indie tracks.
Outside of these tracks, not too much stuck out to me nor impressed me. I found songs like "Hericane", "Pancakes", and "Tampa" to be pretty boring and dull, either due to their instrumentation or bland and sappy lyricism. "So, Soo Pretty" is extremely reminiscent, sounding just like an instrumental that I could easily hear from The 1975. It also seems that LANY truly wore their inspirations on their sleeves, specifically towards the second half of the album. They lost their energetic indie-pop sound and fell into this set of songs that seemed very boring and forced.
Overall, not a bad debut from LANY. The first half of the album was extremely enjoyable. I love their sound that they produced for the first 30 minutes of the album, I thought it was very high energy, danceable, and poppy. But they fell flat towards the second half of the record, barely appealing to me in anyway. If this project was shortened, and more concise, it would've made for a fantastic debut. It was a decent album overall, but it seemed to contain some extra baggage that really didn't need to be included. The lyrics throughout were all romantically based and definitely corny or hackneyed at times, which became repetitive about halfway through. This is a band I am going to keep my eye on because I do like their indie-pop sound and I would love to see how they develop in the future. Listen below...
Listen:
LANY - ILYSB
LANY - Flowers on the Floor
LANY - Super Far
Rating: 6/10
Genre: Indie-Pop/Pop/"Tumblr-Pop"/Dream-Pop/Alt-Pop/Electronic-Pop
Fav Songs: Dumb Stuff, The Breakup, Super Far, Overtime, Flowers on the Floor, ILYSB, Good Girls, Purple Teeth, It Was Love
Comments
Post a Comment