Album Reviews

Album Review: Love Is All – A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night (What’s Your Rupture)

By | Published on Monday 23 March 2009

Love Is All

It had to happen sometime. In the inevitable passing of years, things change. Bound by the unwritten law associated with marriage and kids, Love Is All had an ultimatum: mature or crumble. Some bands can’t take the heat and choose the latter – look at Be Your Own Pet when they realised that, painful as it is to admit, the drugs don’t always work. But Love Is All carried on, and like a formidable stilton, matured. This doesn’t mean to say they’ve lost their edge. If anything, the pace is increased and the vocals are more aggressive. What they have gained is control and knowledge about how to structure an album. There’s the viscous brass stabbings of ‘New Beginning’ contrasted with the lay-back sunset haze of ‘Last Choice’. There’s the tasteful marching indie slice ‘Rumours’ confronting the wildly chaotic ‘Big Bangs, Black Holes, Meteorites’. Lyrically, Josephine Olausson has found purpose and depth, capturing the loneliness of creativity: “I need a new Beginning/I want an extra inning”. She urges her point with as much angst as a room full of heartbroken teenagers. They fully strike gold when they reach single ‘Wishing Well’. Like a Scandinavian Scott Walker discovering that everything sounds better through twelve distortion pedals, Love Is All know their sound is fresher than all the daisies in ‘The Sound Of Music’. Taking advantage of this proud fact, they have constructed an album which deserves recognition as proof that you can still stick it to the man with a cradle in your hands. GB

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