I'm quite busy lately. My daughter is more demanding too. She builds her own music taste which is mostly about repeating one song as long as human being can handle. Reviewing isn't easy if all you hear in your head is "the wheels on a bus going round and round". Especially if album is not easy either. But I guess this is how it has to be...
I actually like to excuse myself with how busy I am. Work, family, gym, books, work again... In fact we're all very busy nowadays. If you're an adult and you're not tired, you doing it wrong. It used to be a joke when I was younger. Lads from Looms know exactly what I mean as they live in New York which is known as the busiest place on earth. When I got their LP "How It Has to Be" and played it few times but couldn't focus on it. There is too many things happening here to just play it somewhere in a background of cooking pasta. And being busy has nothing to do with it. Breakthrough was when I came back home more tired than usually. I get myself a glass of whiskey and spin the record again.
This album isn't easy in a meaning it requires all your attention. It's like that girl at Uni. You know her, she is on a same lecture as you, you say hi to her at the campus and that's it. But then one day you look at her and realise she is absolutely beautiful. Looms latest work is patient too. It waits for the right moment to show all the charm. And then you just feel stupid you haven't seen that from the very beginning. Cause "How It Has to Be" is actually all the remedy for stress and tiredness.
First I was hit with rhythmic section. I had to check is the drummer a living person. He is! Zach Eichenhorn. I'm not saying he is showing off with crazy techniques or fast hand breaking solos. He is like Ringo Starr, every single bit is perfect and fits to the songs so well I couldn't imagine alternative universe where it would be played better. He is squeezing every juicy kick and snare from the drums, to the very last drop. It's like a heaven for all the people who love to drum with fingers on a table.
Hammond Murray assist him in a best way possible. Bass is so often underestimate but here is a spine to every beat, every tact and every riff. Guitars (Harry Morris Jr. and Sharif Mekawy) are slowly building a lace around that core. Very bluesy and folky, with that lovely hint of country which reminds me lazy evening on a country side. Sherif Mekawy ornaments it all with his voice and keys. There is something dreamy about these vocals. My first thought was Kristian Matsson aka. The Tallest Man On Earth but there is so much more, Jack White, Dan McLean, you name it.
It's not an easy album even though it is so easy to listen to it. It's a lace of sounds. It has a core, a main theme. But whole art lays in these tiny details you don't see at the first sight. Bass and drums are the core, then there are electronic bits here and there, sometimes almost silly, sometimes freaky like from Twin Peaks, then guitars which are breaking into overdrive riffs just to go back to where they were before. Tiny Hammond's organ solo, sleepy ending of the album. And lyrics. Jeez, once you get all these music details you have time to focus on what Sharif tries to tell us. But that would be a topic for another review.
It's a lace. You walk by, you look. A lace.
But if you look closer you'll see an art, an amazing example of real craft. And as with real craft it is so easy to miss it. But I guess this is how it has to be...
Album was released as a black LP by Little Dickman Records. Very neat cover. I like this graphic even more as a part of record's label. Disc itself sounds really good, way better than digital. Black inner sleeve keeps the total atmosphere however I'd love to have some lyrics on it. Even though it was released almost a year ago it is still available by group's bandcamp. And remember it is a brilliant, reusable stress relief medicine.
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