There are times when you can only expect plaudits and ears to come chasing an encounter and one such moment is surely to surround the release of the debut album from British singer songwriter Lara Smiles. A truly magnetic festival of resourceful sounds and lively imagination, All For You is as rich in its variety and enterprise as it is determined in its aim to get the body bouncing and involved in inhibition losing fun. It is a treat of an introduction which just seems to get more impressive and manipulative by the listen.
With music never far from her ears and passion since a young child, seeds laid by the sounds her parents were playing, Lara has grown to embrace a host of styles and flavours which has nurtured the variety and diversity in her own writing and music. Among a host of major inspirations, the likes of Tina Turner, The Beatles, Paul Simon, Queen, Prodigy, The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Muse, Beth Ditto, Green Day and Middle Eastern music heavily feature yet as her first full-length reveals, they have only gone to spark her own musical individuality. Since emerging she has also become a praise drawing presence on the UK live scene supporting the likes of Pete Doherty and playing some of the biggest festivals, including Glastonbury four times, the Isle of Wight Festival, and The Great Escape as well as also finding herself collaborating with The Orb, guesting on the new Shed Seven album, Instant Pleasures, and singing with The Australian Pink Floyd Show for the past eight years.
Mixed by Jamie Grashion and legendary producers Michael Rendall and Martin Glover aka Youth (Primal Scream, The Orb, Pink Floyd), her self-produced debut album is poised to thrust Lara into the limelight in her own rights. That is our expectations here and every venture through All For You only cements our thoughts.
© Hannah Smiles
Breeding a boisterous and tenacious, often ferocious blend of alternative rock and contagion loaded pop with a just as eager appetite for punk, electro and industrial rock with plenty more besides, the album opens up with the swiftly and increasingly magnetic Coincidence. A spiral of electronic enticement entangles ears first as crisp beats pounce, their combined lure soon reinforced by the hungry riffs of Lara’s guitar. Instantly intrigue and drama lines every emerging tendril turning, it evolving crystalline glamour and beauty as the song breaks into a melodic stroll alongside the seductive tones of Lara. The mercurial edge to the track though continues as its writhes around like a creative dervish, tantalising and fascinating at every turn whilst getting the release off to a tremendous start.
It is an overall inescapable enticement which continues through the following Save Yourself. Bubbling electronics and boisterous guitar align to the darker stroll of Joe Singfield’s bass as the rustle of Sara Leigh’s beats tease before leading the song in its own individual canter. In turn there is a devious urgency and aggressiveness which breaks out as the chorus escapes a calmer build up though that too has a dramatic edge which just sparks the imagination as potently as ears. Lara’s vocals have rich variety which relish her imagination and the equally diverse tapestry of sounds she ventures forth across this track alone it emerging as a compelling slice of punk lined pop ‘n’ roll.
The album’s title track comes next, bounding in on an irresistible incitement of a bassline which continues to manipulate as vocals and melodies dance. Ridiculously infectious and persuasive to hips and vocal chords, the track simply seduced compliance and participation whilst igniting an already firmly placed appetite for the release before Dictate Peace explores a whole new landscape of Eastern spiced teasing and imagination. Its summery stroll and breeze radiates captivation but also the darker shadows and strains of drama which impose their intrigue throughout; it all adding to a riveting invention which sees the listener taken through a web of creative espionage.
And It Hurts follows with its initial gentle elegant charms to the fore. They continue to entice as the fire in the heart and belly of the song smoulders and ignites note by note. With its blaze increased, energy erupts but so too another striking collusion of textures and flavours with the track continuing the great unpredictability of its predecessors and their instinctive contagion.
The folkish grace and melodic beauty of Oh How is pretty much aural intoxication straight after, Lara’s voice intimation carrying seduction and radiance while Disconnected provides a controlled but virulent contagion of pop rock with a compelling blend of spikiness and winning grins to its stomp. In turn, Zombie preys on the senses and body with its emotive irritability and electro funk catchiness. Like all tracks, it soon reveals its individually inventive escapade of unexpected twists which only accelerate its slavery of ears and involvement.
Penultimate song, The Fightings Over, needs mere seconds to have everything robustly involved in its punk ‘n’ rock bred bounce as thoughts align to its lyrical exploration, a tempestuousness in its air and attitude only adding to the incendiary theatre perfectly setting up the contrasting mellow and glowing yet melancholic repose of final track, Turn It Around. The individuality of this pair alone songs epitomises the variety thick All For You as a whole and of Lara’s songwriting which seems so effortlessly to cast real diversity and adventure.
There have been a few releases which have truly inspired and aroused us here this year, a couple this month alone and All For You sits boldly alongside giving real undiluted pleasure. Whether it sees Lara Smiles a household name we will see but it will surely establish her as one of our most exciting and unique talents.
All For You is released September 7th via iTunes and other stores with its album launch show @ the Sebright Arms, London August 30th.
http://www.larasmiles.com/ https://www.facebook.com/larasmilesmusic/ https://twitter.com/LaraSmilesMusic
Pete RingMaster24/08/2018
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
With Kurt Philips providing drums throughout, the EP kicks off with Giving Up, its jumbled start instantly spawning a tasty guitar hook which soon leads into a tenacious stroll through ears. Simultaneously a new richer flavouring to the band’s punk sound begins tempting, the track merging its raw traits with infectious enterprise as it increasingly stomps around. Dave’s bass has a gorgeous dark steely tone, Elliot’s vocals matching its lure in earnest attitude as his and Nick’s guitars throw their sonic wares around. As with the first EP, we found flavouring more akin to the likes of Psychedelic Furs and The Vibrators than those earlier mentioned influences but more so the band’s own voice in sound and invention emerges this time around.
Breathe starts things off and the track instantly has attention hooked as the dark grumble of Marks’ bass lines up alongside his strong expression carrying vocals. JJ‘s beats in turn hit with relish before it is all wrapped in the melodic enterprise of Stead. Instantly appetising and swiftly infectious, the song proceeds to stroll with wild nostrils and flirtatious hooks, its melodic jangle a teasing lure in the jungle of more exacting rhythms. It is fair to say that previous song Trigger has been the marker for Lost Without Cause up to this point but no longer as Breathe steals its thunder.
The EP opens with the outstanding Ghost Town, a song swiftly making a successful claim for best moment and most potent lure within Lights. With a great slightly off-kilter indie rock revelry to its punk rock tenacity, the track like a mix of Asylums and The Wildhearts, things are swiftly bold and sweaty as the swinging beats of Josh Woolnough scythe through the nagging riffs and spiky grooves of guitarists Matty Halliwell and Lewis Horsley respectively. The energetic vocals of the former equally inject an energy and fresh identity to the encounter, it all colluding in an adventurous and unpredictable mix driven by the alluringly throbbing groan of Laurence Burkitt’s bassline. In no time body and vocal chords are enlisted by the arousing antics of the song, its dynamic and almost bitchy start the perfect introduction to Reckless Intentions.
Again the new release sees the band drawing on the seeds of punk rock across the decades and from both sides of the North Atlantic, infusing all into their own individual hook strapped, melody shaped songs. The EP opens up with the irresistible Alone Together, a track “all about the strains of relationships whether that be romantic or political.” It opens up with a delicious old school hook, raw bait surely nurtured from a Ramones/Stiff Little Fingers like inspiration. Soon rhythms are jabbing at the persistent lure, in turn the potent vocals of Mercy flirting with ears and matching the infectious strength of the sounds around him. The melodic boisterousness and craft of lead guitarist Matt Lee only adds richer colour to a song already gripping the imagination and body with its chopping riffs and rousing rhythms.
Emerging from the creative linking up of singer/songwriter Sam Wyatt and guitarist/songwriter Adam Bailey, Escapade stepped forward in the autumn of 2015 with the band growing from an acoustic pairing of the two with the addition of bassist Jordan Alleston and drummer Martin Wenham the following year. Their first EP and its single stirred up a wave of praise and support the way the band, including that of Kasabian’s Tom Meighan, and is sure to be matched and easy to suspect eclipsed by the reaction to Red Sky.
Once again Broadcasting To The Nations is a proposition brought alive with the distinctive Authority Zero mixing of SoCal punk with reggae and ska and as ever delivered with a host of swinging hooks and anthemic dexterity which has lured persistent acclaim the way of their music and releases. Within the new album though, it all seems to have found a new appetite and imagination; like the quartet has reaped the best elements from previous successes and honed them into their keenest most rapaciously rebellious but fun adventure yet.