The Loves – …Love You

So the final Loves LP has landed, and after ten years of service to our ears and the music industry, it is with a high-energy, vibrant end that they go out on. And a cover of what sounds like the closing number to a television comedy from the sixties…

This is an album that hops from genre to genre whilst retaining a strong sense of the sixties, and nonsensical lyrics about losing horses, chips, girlfriends, boyfriends and more. It’s also the shortest album I’ve ever heard in my life. Through ten super snappy numbers, the seven-piece take you on one final journey of ‘love’, The Loves style. And with Pipette-esque numbers including ‘That Boy is Mine’ and ‘December Boy’ – cue honeyed females harmonies and bells – the naivety of ‘I lost my doll to Rock & Roll’, the incessant handclapping of sixties cover ‘I Want Love & Affection’, to raucous instrument bashing in the likes of ‘O My Gawd!’, this is an album that will have you singing your heart out, shaking your mop AND doing the jive, all at the same time (save for one or two numbers that might have you thoughtfully reflecting on a few old flames).

Save ‘WTF?’ for when you’re silently pissed off but don’t want to be too vocal about it. With lines like “But. What the fuck? Felt like forever now it feels like it’s not” repeated over and over again, it’s easy to pick up and can be hummed in a range of different social situations. The female vocals make it easy (for girls) to put yourself in the situation. And the whinnying of the violin at the end has the same effect as the voicemail left to Jesus in track nine, ‘It’s…The End of the World’. It’s mega funny but in a sort of ridiculously cynical sort of way. Like when you take a badly ungraceful fall and have to laugh because of how jerky you must have looked to everyone when you hit the floor (and also because the shock means that if you don’t laugh, you’ll definitely cry). Basically, these numbers are perfect for when you’re in the type of mood that can be lifted with one stifled giggle.

When you’ve got more energy (maybe when someone else falls running for the bus and you manage to run, catch it, and apply some good red lipstick at the same time), use the squeaking recorders, shout-y choruses and random bursts from the megaphone in ‘Bubblegum’ for running hyperactively in circles (when you get off again, not on the bus), punching your fist in the air “for all the girls out there” and to wave off all members of The Loves, both past and present. Because for a decade of creating high-energy sixties-inspired pop music, and lyrics that both touch your heart, AND give you license to unleash your crazier side once in a while, they sure deserve it.