HIGH VOLTAGEwww.highvoltage.org.ukIt's a warped opening: the helter-skelter of 'Clancy's Stomp' is a cartoon way to set the atonal pace of this debut from likeable St. Helens outfit The Loungs, who are riding high at the forefront of the town's cultural reaissance.
Crowd chanting and a high-pitched grind, relentless layers of guitar, acoustic rainbows, bleeps, distortion, feed back, time travel, mental illness, epic tapestries and odd humour – there is all of this and more, as seamlessly weaved into the psychedelic 'Electric Lights', that 60s feel made from time-machine melodies.
This likeable St. Helen's skank-out rattles on with the brassy and addictive 'Armageddon Outta Here', a record that features some deft twanging and has something of the classic Christmas single about it. By now, your love should be unconditional.
Elsewhere, drifting instrumental jams reveal a natural tendency to see the world through kaleidoscopic lenses, whilst punk/folk rocker 'Googly Moogly' casts sincerity aside in a desperate insomniac bid to catch the rays of romantic sunlight that reflect off the glass factory and deep into bedsit land A580 style. The sometimes-scratchy vocals sit deep in the (oft-atonal) mix, on a strange voyage through slow sea-shanties and bleeping psychedelia.
Rich in textures and strong on feelings, this is an endearing slap in the ear'oles that will make you sit up and take notice. This beautifully constructed debut left me smiling and scratching my head.
4 out of 5
SUBBA-CULTCHAwww.subba-cultcha.comThe Loungs are Jamie, Dan, Neil, Pablo, Gaz and Martin. From their myspace site it looks like they are less badly drawn than badly dressed boys. They deliver two and a half minute pop songs somewhere between dreamy pop and hyperactive stomp…and stomp they do in the opener 'Clancy's Stomp.' Then they take you on a fleeting psychedelic trip. 'Electric lights,' has the deep muffled vocals of 'Trumpton Riots,' then goes all happy clappy on your ass.
Their single 'Armageddon Outta Here,' is a jolly piece of laugh out loud pop. 'So let the flames fall from the sky coz I wont miss you when you die, and in the aftermath of war be sure that I don't love you anymore.' You can imagine it being played in the background amidst a break up to liven up the occasion!
The trippy Floyd of 'Smile Reptile' segues into 'Throughout It All,' which is a quite lovely folky track. Badly Drawn Boy meets The Bees. A catchy melody with symphonic instrumentation boasts the confident lyric 'I know where I'm going wrong now. Her feet wont touch the ground.'
'Googly Moogly,' is a fabulous nonsensical pastiche. The Beatles meets HMHB. Instead of happiness is a warm gun it's a warm bed and some wine, sounds lovely! The lyrics 'I thought I'd need some water when my heart caught fire, I always think these things up when I'm really tired,' make you smile.
The somnambulant stoner's song 'Get Along,' is so ambient you feel like it should be piped into pubs at chucking out time aside from its short bursts of gadabout madness.
The words 'I'm gonna take your girl away from you, you fool,' from the song for the romantically overlooked are delivered so genially you cant imagine the bloke objecting.
'Dig That Do' is a 'Lily the Pink' sounding tale from the mental home. 'Just remember the voices you hear are only there to remind you of a time you forgot your medication,' is sung over the brass driven harmony of 'Happy Days Are Here Again.'
'All Your Love,' starts like a waltz and ends in a conga. 'Seen My Baby Dancing,' possesses elements of 'House of Fun.' 'In Winter Coats,' talks of devils with upturned icy toes over weird synth sounds and Damon Goughlike vocals. Its final section provides a Sergeant Pepper end to the proceedings.
These fun lovers are a real breath of fresh air. Hilarious yet touching little songs with four part harmonies and the sound of the studio radiator in the background. They make you want to give a stranger a hug; like watching The Magic Roundabout on mushrooms.
MANCHESTER MUSICwww.music-dash.co.ukALBUM OF THE WEEKAfter the delights of "Armageddon Outta Here" The Loungs' debut album is a dizzy collection of modern, bustling folk rock. They sit somewhere between The Houghton Weavers and The Beta Band, and whilst that may seem an incredulous comparison it's no criticism. From the spaced out "Clancy's Stomp" to the Housemartin jollities of "Electric Lights", The Loungs spin a feverish balance of string infused foolishness and the brightest examples of shimmering guitar pop. "Through It All" is a song that's drawn into a slower frame, with traditionally flavoured harmonies and a very rich canvas of instruments and there a few of these dotted around the album, pitching the tempo at different speeds as the songs offer a refreshing spectrum of moods. "We Are The Champs" is a very enjoyable album earning repeated spins on pure merit but more significantly, this is a big league album given the satisfaction of a release on the credibly innovative label aA. Doubters should sew zips to their mouths, just about...now!.
MMMM ½
TELETEXTwww.teletext.co.ukIts always great to hear a band so entwined in its own musical adventure they sound like theyve dissapeared through the looking glass. And with their kaleidascope pop, The Loungs are such a band. In fact their tunes are so mind-bending, you'll feel quite odd after an album-full. From the demented sea shanty Googly Moogly to the waltzing All Your Love, its quite a trip. File next to SFA.
8/10.
SOUNDS XPwww.soundsxp.comIf you've ever read an interview with the Loungs you'll already know that they're not only one of the funniest bands on the circuit but also one of the most unpretentious. They don't aim to be part of a scene or pigeonhole themselves through their look (dishevelled and hairy through laziness rather than design) or their music. On the brilliantly varied We are the Champ they also don't aim to bow down to any rules about strict chord structures, instrumentation or even just using words likely to be found in a dictionary. So though one minute you might have them billed as bewhiskered psych popsters, they then turn over the tune cart by chucking in a sea shanty or salsa. For the listener, variety is indeed the spice of life.
The two marvellous singles are present; Armageddon Outta Here with its jaunty Housemartins indie pop feel and I'm Gonna Take Your Girl with its stomping brass fuelled chorus but there's a myriad of other nuggets here that suggest the influence of Beefheart, the Damned, the Beach Boys, Madness, early XTC, and in particular the masters of English eccentricity, the Kinks. By the time you finish with the gorgeous lilting folk of In Winter Comes you'll have tip toed through thirteen mighty morphin' masterpieces. A hirsute beaut!
MUSIC OMHwww.musicomh.com"Confidence is a preference for the habitual voyeur" as some clever clogs once spouted. They could well have been talking about the cocky Loungs who seemingly invite a critical mauling for their cheek in calling their debut album We Are The Champ.
Thankfully my critical mauling mitts remain dusty after succumbing to music that lives up to the hype. For a debut album to take in influences as head-spinning as The Beach Boys, The Beta Band, Super Furry Animals, ELO and The Wurzels is something. Sunshine from St. Helens (between Manchester and Liverpool) to brighten your life. To know it's self-produced and bursting with ideas makes you know you're onto something pretty special.
In other hands the sort of schizophrenic changes that crop up on We Are The Champ would be lumpy and unnecessary in a pop song but in the land of The Loungs songs are rarely the same ones that finish as the ones that start. All Your Love flits from waltz time to party time in a breath.
Mental health, hairdressing, nonsense and lost and lumbering love all crop up as topics for pop discussion all done with a cheeky glint in their eye. Sweet sea shanties roil and tumble on a sea of four-part harmonies and Armageddon Outta Here even calls to mind the jaunty jangle of eighties pop harmonizers The Housemartins. Throughout It All has the same woozy charms of Welsh outfit Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. Googly Moogly is as big and daft as the name would suggest done with such earnestness as a beat group direct from a working men's club.
Take Get Along for example; starting on a sweet low tempo brush of harmony before swelling into a drunken ska / big band / punky hoedown...and back again. This is music charged with a pulsing heartbeat that gets up, sits down, has a cry on your shoulder before leading the can-can 'round the room.
The equivalent of a technicolour hoe-down in a riot of colours from the gaudy seaside stomp of Electric Lights to the autumnal shrug of In Winter Coats that makes The Loungs a distinctly British band. They send back postcards from sunnier climes where harmonies and drinks run free, but beneath the sunhats dark thoughts and intentions lurk. The riotous Seen My Baby Dancing sounds like Madness covering a surf classic.They're like the Bastard Beach Boys, from 'oop North' toiling about on a freezing seafront dreaming of palm trees.
It is a treasure-trove of psychedelic, kaleidoscopic references that cartwheel away on lush orchestration, chiming melodies, banks of harmony to make the bleakest of being dumpedness seem not so bad. They could revel in their own smugness but tunes are trimmed of fat to be sleek, smart, infectious and sneaking under the two and a half minute mark. They are the undisputed champs of off-kilter music set to the head-spinning, soul-swooping, shattering of crystal balls. It is, (cliché dictionary to the fore) 'a knockout!'
4 out of 5
BOOMKATwww.boomkat.comThe Loungs' debut album for Akoustik Anarkhy is an ambitious assault on guitar pop music, employing the same sort of psychedelic strategies the Super Furry Animals plump for, with plenty of weirdo electronics, sweet, syrupy strings and rough-cut Beach Boys harmonies. The joyous pop of 'Electric Lights' is arguably the band's single finest achievement to date. It's a great piece of pop music that draws on classic indie songwriting and echoing vocal production. Next up is recent single, the lamentably titled 'Armageddon Outta Here', which is another success, sporting the most upscale, near orchestral arrangement on the album. 'Get Along', with its glockenspiel and jazzy brass lines initially brings to mind the work of fellow Mancunians Alfie, only for the whole thing to turn into a kind of rowdy pub-bound hoedown a minute or so in. Far more tranquil is 'In Winter Coats', an especially strong track to close the album on, which but for its prolonged electronic coda would be along the same lines as Belle & Sebastian-style balladry. The Loungs do a fine job of keeping jangly, indie pop songwriting sounding fresh with an excellent ear for arrangement. An impressive debut.
NEW NOISEwww.new-noise.netSt. Helens, a town more recently known for 18 stone of idiot, a World-conquering Rugby League team and for becoming the second home of Harry Potter (new director, David Yates, is a native) has another string to add its bow with the release of 'We Are The Champ'; a slightly stoned, very wired debut from The Loungs.
Mixing the music hall element of nearby neighbours Clinic with the chonged-out hippyish vibes of (nearby neighbours – thinking about it, the smell of skunk coming from Liverpool must be prevalent) The Coral, this is an album filled with sea shanties, noodling instrumental solos and some utter gibberish on the lyrical front. In short, it's frickin' sweet.
One could suspect that The Coral have been killed and replaced by The Loungs. Whilst we aren't suggesting they copied – far from it, WATC is a far darker album, at times it's the musical equivalent of the Preacher from Poltergeist II; all sunshine and smiles on the surface yet all blood, gore and menace underneath – they do occupy the same space. Musically, it's a total mish-mash. 'I'm Gonna Take Your Girl' could be The La's mashed with a ska-punk band whilst 'Googly Moogly' is Gomez in a washing machine with Julian Cope and 'Hurdy Gurdy Man'-era Butthole Surfers.
'Leep' is the The Kinks 'Village Green Preservation Society' stuck in the TV from 'Twilight Zone: The Movie' whilst a brass band march through your head, slipping on the brain-juice. It sounds intriguing doesn't it? Well, just watch out for the mind-melding little kid. He wants you to be his friend… forever.
All in all, The Loungs could quite possibly be the best new band of 2007; a total hidden gem. Clear the smoke, mind the gap and take a seat. This is one wacky race you won't want to end.
RANT MAGAZINEwww.tilfeldigproductions.com/rantmagazine/A fiddle player I know has quite a lucrative occupation: composing music for computer games. Now, if a single fiddle player can do it, with his violin and an electronic box of tricks, The Loungs will revolutionise computer game music. There's the kind of beeps and squeals which Mario fans will appreciate, there's the different paces for the levels where the gamer is required to race a vehicle of some kind, there's the congratulatory dance-music when you complete a level, most apparent in track three, 'Armageddon Outta Here.'
So you'd be right in thinking that The Loungs aren't making music for furrowed-browed musos. However, it would appear that the band don't want to be dismissed as a joke. The track 'Googly Moogly' sounds exactly the children's programme theme tune you'd imagine it to be, yet they explain it away by lyrics such as 'I always think these things up when I'm really tired.' Well, I'm not so convinced – I think a lot of thought has gone in to your demented circus sound, lads.
The Loungs have got quite a following, it would seem. And much of it is the result of the interaction between crowd and band at gigs. 'I'm Gonna Take Your Girl' starts slow, yet you know something's in store. They can't keep the sincere Beach Boys harmonies up for long. So when that riff kicks in, I'm not surprised when a particular contingent of the crowd make farmyard noises in the oh-so-pregnant pauses. I'm sure it was all premeditated, although apparently The Loungs plead innocence.
'Dig that Do' is – frankly – alarming. Imagine a rural village fete. The kind that hasn't yet been tainted by sports-wearing scallies. Then imagine the fete's musical entertainment which occurs early evening, after a few pear ciders. Before you know it, the straw has been scattered across the lawns of the church house and the village elders have begun pelvic thrusting in time. Again, The Loungs try and explain themselves away; this time, 'when you forgot your medication.' The only medication here is fresh air and solitude.
We Are The Champ is disconcerting. It's not just the grammar of the title, it's the fact that listeners are constantly made to feel a little uncomfortable. Childhood party DJs wade in with their flaunted midriffs and tacky action-led novelty songs, the feeling of square eyes as though you've played too much Super Nintendo. There's even your flirt with Less Than Jake. So maybe I won't be going there.
