It was only a couple of months ago when Little Lapin seduced and enthralled with the single Remember The Highs, its masterful coaxing of ears and imagination the wake-up call to the mesmeric sound and voice of the UK singer-songwriter for a great many. The acclaimed track also revealed inventive and bold songwriting, something her fans were already vocal about and now impressively confirmed by the artist’s debut album also called Remember The Highs. It is a fascinating and captivating collection of songs which with diversity and melodic resourcefulness simply leave thoughts and emotions spellbound.
Little Lapin is Lucy Hill, a Devon bred songstress now based in Bristol who has been entrancing audiences from the UK to New Zealand and New York since emerging round 2012. Musically her inspirations include the likes of Regina Spektor, The Cranberries, Florence & The Machine, Laura Marling, PJ Harvey, The Cure, and The Pixies, many providing creative whispers in what is a sound and songs which are openly distinctive to Hill. The swift proof comes with the last single, though before that she had bred a strong and loyal fan base through a tantalising live presence and releases such as earlier tracks Sound of Summer and Winning Is Losing, and more so a self-titled EP last year which sparked attention from the likes of Tom Robinson on BBC Radio 6 and regular online radio play. It is easy to assume though this was just the appetiser to more fevered responses and acclaim destined to be earned by Remember The Highs, the album a beacon of melodies and harmonies set to draw greedy appetites like moths to a flame.
The album opens with Magnet Eyes and an immediate inescapable tempting of warm guitar and keys taken to another enslaving level by the unique tones of Hill. Her voice has a quality of sounding familiar as well as freshly bewitching, but from person to person it seems we hear someone different as a reference, the likes of Laura Marling, Regina Spektor, Sinead O’Connor, and Chrissie Hynde just some references used, with the latter the closest for us as a descriptive hint. As the song stretches its melodic nature and evocative air, a shadow of darker resonance comes into play to catch the imagination all over again, whilst voice and keys especially almost flirt with rich expression and emotive radiance.
It is a captivating start, but also a potent teaser to the glories of the following Over The Draft and the album’s title track. The first of the two songs creases ears with an initial persuasion of guitar again quickly enhanced by the sultry tones of Hill. Eager rhythms then gently and enticingly march into the exotic landscape now being cast by keys, everything settling into a scenic lure of melodic mystique and catchy hooks with the voice of Hill one giant romance of a snare. Its successor remains as potent as the first time heard, and if there is an air of Chrisse Hynde in the second track, Remember The Highs wonderfully reeks of The Pretenders in its sonic groove and provocative melodic hooks. Vocally too Hill brings her spiciest tang to syllables and a slightly nasal croon reminiscent of the Ohio musician. The darker bred bass groove alongside the irresistible winy flames of guitar is equally as compelling, the song providing one delicious embrace of tenacious enterprise and beauty.
The acoustic opening to Go!Stop!Go! has ears lit and body swaying instantly but it is the brooding air of drama cast through keys and an orchestral breath which ebbs and flows across the track, that turns a potent encounter into a spellbinding one. It is a serenade with haunting shadows and dark aural reflections which offer a melancholic temper to the invigorating partnership and narrative of voice and melody. The song just blossoms with every listen, its slower initial smoulder, compared to the previous songs, soon as engrossing and seductive as anything upon the album.
Sound Of Summer rolls in next on a rumble of rhythms which quickly evolves into an embrace of seventies seeded Beatle-esque keys and the ever inviting vocals. Occasional crescendos of drums add to the expanding and again sultry canvas of the song, guitars and keys colouring its scenery with alluring and imagination inciting enterprise to which bass adds swarthy lines of juicy shadows. Once more there is no option but to sink into the depths of a song before being left face to face with the rockier acoustic persuasion of In My Mind. The song is barely a stroll across the senses but even in its low key gait reveals a tenacious and sturdier character in its absorbing balladry compared to its predecessor.
Both songs though get over shadowed by the outstanding Colour Blind, a track emerging as a definite favourite. It starts on a thoughtful and evocative persuasion of guitar, Hill in moments adding her reflective vocal spice for an engaging start. Soon though, everything erupts into a gently concussive belt of emotional and creative turmoil, agitated rhythms and clanging riffs consorting with fiery keys in a bedlamic expulsion. It is a striking and thrilling twist to an already highly persuasive proposition providing yet another major highlight in Remember The Highs.
The album finishes with firstly the melancholic but again vibrantly arresting Panic, a song which has an essence of the drama found within The Smiths songwriting to it, and finally the closing warm smile of A Nice Coincidence. Contrasting textures flirt from within the encounter, sombre strings find themselves courted by skittish rhythms and another seduction of voice and melodies. The lyrical side of songs, as once more shown here, is just as intriguing and enticing, Hill able to cast hope in dark experiences and show the shadows within the brightest adventures.
Remember The Highs is a musical love affair for the senses from an artist in Little Lapin, who has the potential to become one of Britain’s most exciting and innovative singer songwriters. Thinking about it as her album seduces once again, she already is.
Remember The Highs is released on May 15th @ http://littlelapin.bandcamp.com/album/remember-the-highs-2
http://www.littlelapinmusic.com/ https://www.facebook.com/littlelapin
RingMaster 14/05/2015
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