CD Review: Lazy Lions – Keep Your Love Away

In an auspicious debut, the somewhat backward-looking, futuristically inclined New York second-wave new wave quartet go three for four and even manage to knock a couple out of the park. Like a tougher, more focused yet more pop-oriented Kaiser Chiefs, Lazy Lions reach back to the classics, but in their case this means Elvis Costello and Split Enz rather than Wire and Blur. Frontman Jim Allen goes for a sort of vintage Graham Parker white soul delivery and pretty much nails it. Robert Sorkin’s incisive, tasteful guitar licks are occasionally augmented by trebly organ, enhancing the early 80s feel, and brilliant bassist Anne-Marie Stehn (ex-Maul Girls, Skinny Ruth and Antigone Rising) adds her signature pulse and melodicism. Lyrically, most of these song pack a punch: clever wordplay with double entendres and literary references are all over the place.

 

The title track is a nice attempt that aside from the chorus doesn’t really come together. But the next cut, Help Is Not Exactly on the Way is a smash, a snidely sarcastic snapshot from the brink of the apocalypse, pounding along on a killer janglerock melody. Flavored with some deliciously watery lead guitar, You Me Baudelaire is a triumphantly buoyant midtempo ballad for romantically-inclined nonconformists. The ep winds up with the riff-rocking Magellan in Reverse, a wry chronicle of missteps that ends on a surprisingly effective, dark note. Throughout the album, the playing is smart, tuneful and terse: no wasted notes anywhere. Elvis Costello would be proud. If the album is any indication they ought to be excellent live. Lazy Lions play Crash Mansion at 7:30 PM on July 2.