MUSIC REVIEW . Lamb . Best Kept Secrets

by Kris   ⋅   October 12, 2005   ⋅   Comment now   ⋅    RSS

I am not an advocate for greatest hits albums. When I was in grade school, I figured that sort of thing was for fogies who weren’t true fans. But if being a true fan means you have to suffer through the flops then that’s just wasteful time- and money-wise. So when CD Warehouse offered its discounts, I couldn’t help but appease my inner fogey. I bought Best Kept Secrets, the Best of Lamb, a collection of their most popular tunes from 1996-2004 including Portugal chart topper Gabriel.

I have a few Lamb albums already and I’m not really sure how to describe them, so please bear with me. First of all, I have to say that they are musically erratic, which is one reason why I like them so much. They jump from trip-hoppy tribal to sweet melodies to boomboom drum and bass, thanks to Andy Barlow’s programming experiments and inspiration from classical composers. For example, for Gold, Andy says it “came out of nowhere, I wanted an off-kilter jazz breakbeat vibe, its in waltztime, but swung so you can dance (or lurch) to it”. Gorecki (as in Henryk Gorecki’s Third Symphony, the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs) plays a bit like Madonna’s Frozen, Cotton Wool is Aphex-Twin spastic, Little Things is Photek-y; although most of these songs were released before their better known doppelgangers.

The other crazy element to Lamb’s eclecticism is lead singer/songwriter Lou Rhode’s style and sound. She’s apparently channelling Portishead’s Beth Gibbons mixed with Sneakerpimp’s Kelli Ali’s cheerleader cuteness, Tori Amos’ urgency, Billie Holliday’s cotton mouthed lisp and tonal drag (especially evident on B Line and Lullaby). The result is not entirely pretty and at times almost like a sugary Macy Gray, but it works somehow. Possibly because it’s being paired with Barlow’s bizarre instrumental arrangements and her own honestly introspective lyrics, some based on zen teachings. Maybe because it’s so different and difficult to pin down, therefore doesn’t get stale.

Best Kept Secrets also includes a DVD disc of seven of their sometimes silly, sometimes hauntingly technoid videos where they frolic in fuzzy shallow depth of field where only a tiny area is actually in focus. They stick to one-room shots like in B Line where an electric shock transforms Lou into an inflated robotic clowny fishhead that resembles Ultraman, or switch to b/w “Abercrombie and Fitch running through a tropical deserted island” in Godbless. Cotton Wool is decidedly THX1138. So their diversity is prominent visually as well. These vids are creatively funky and strange, but if it’s too weird for you, you can still have fun chronicling Lou’s hairstyles and colors. Like their sound style, it’s never the same twice.

For whatever reason, Lamb is strange enough to be pleasantly quirky, familiar enough to be comfortable with and strong enough to be able to transport listeners to a hedonistic harpy galaxy. That’s the closest I think I can get to a proper explanation besides Lou’s note for God Bless: “what happens when you take one technophobe singer songwriter and one techno space cadet and mix ‘em up in Leeds.”

Trivia Time: Baz Luhrman borrowed the lyrics to Gorecki for Satine’s final lines in Moulin Rouge!. Lamb was once produced by Frou Frou’s Guy Sigworth.

About the Author:

Kris Kobayashi-Nelson will listen to anything once. Her favorites include Cocteau Twins, Cardigans, Mixel Pixel, Deerhoof, Fiona Apple, Portishead, Sneakerpimps, Sonny Rollins, the Pixies, Autechre… but she has been known to groove to footfalls through November leaves, zipper pulls in the dryer, or ice clinking in a Summer glass.