Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There is a certain delight that surrounds Brighton based band Orchards, the steady release of singles confirming the positive creativity that comes from an inseparable friendship, a meaning that comes from a shared history that stretches back across the recent folds of Time and in which the concept of love flourishes. It is idea that sees the band’s new release Losers/Lovers become a fascination, a regard for the enthral, one in which the letters in which sealed, and sometimes unrequited, amour is passionately held.
It is perhaps to the approach in which vocalist Lucy Evers writes her lyrics which gives the music its definition and elastic state of mind and charm. The use of what can be described as Stream of Consciousness, of the awareness of placing a word, a sentence, a dreamed after thought made corporeal and physically full of shape, is so prevalent that it adds a certain buzz which is inescapable, a shroud of beauty that cannot but helped as love.
It is the sincerity of the lyrical experiment that the music is given its dynamite feel, the guitars of Sam Rushton, Dan Fane’s bass and Will Lee-Lewis’ drums capturing the soul of Ms. Evers and making it beat with the heart of a dance, a ballroom full the dressiest pop and old school Rock melodies possible.
An approach always works when there is a cohesion in the band, a glue-like tendency in which to seek out and explore together and it in songs such Darling, Honey, Luv You 2, Drama King and Double Vision such a popular find, a set of songs of keen interest and dashing personality.
An album of sincerity is always a pleasure to find, one that invokes imagery across several genres is not to be sniffed at but put to good use in your mind, as it suggests openness, a spirited belief that being relatable and poetic are not competing factions in which a subtle war is waged, but one in which a bond of friendship is all consuming.
Orchards release Losers/Lovers on July 6th via Big Scary Monsters.
Ian D. Hall