Album Reviews

Album Review: Ladyfinger (ne) – Dusk (Saddle Creek)

By | Published on Monday 2 March 2009

Ladyfinger

Nebraska was once referred to as the ‘Desert State’, a vast, arid landscape where anyone bold enough to venture in rarely returned. These comments were merely said in jest, yet it underlined a fundamental ignorance – bands do actually come out of Nebraska. With a world striding Bright Eyes to look up to, Ladyfinger bring their balls-to-the-floor rawk to the stage on the renowned Saddle Creek label. If nothing else, you’ve got to admire their timing. The world is salivating for some distortion right now, what with a cripplingly bad ‘Chinese Democracy’ from the car-crash dramatic Axl Rose. So with that in mind the guitars are torn up to 11, the drummer is brandishing baseball bats (maybe), and the vocals are entrenched in epic reverb. Yet the beauty of the album is that its originality lies in its curious ability to sit on the fence. It’s hardcore enough to satisfy those that make devil horns with their hands at any given opportunity, but with a soft centre that will appeal to the romantics among us: a musical Buballoo. Their best showcase is ‘ADD’, which broods in a dark and dissonant soundscape in the verse before launching an adrenaline fuelled and life affirming chorus, like early Queen Of The Stone Age with a bone to pick. After half an album your attention does lag, and once that’s done Ladyfinger (ne) lack the spark to wake you from the daydream. Yet this is a promising sophomore effort, with a refreshing ability to fight its way out of any pidgeonhole. GB

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