Lamb

This is a good CD. A lot of reviews say the lyrics are not very good. Well they are not as bad as people say, any way this kind of music is More about moods and sounds, and Lamb really deliver in those departments. I am still glad I bought this CD! "Lusty" and "Zero" are both great songs, and so is the rest of the album, This cd is full of compelling vocals and great beats. Lamb seems to get compared to everyone from "Olive" to "Baxter" to "Spicehouse" to "Hooverphonic". I think Lamb are totally unique and have no connection to Anyone but themselves. Overall this album is a great mix of drum n bass with a bit of jazz, some trip hop and a beautiful voice. A great addition to any modern music collection.

I was introduced to this album from the first girl I ever felt sincere love for, so yeah it has a sentimental quality to it. Outside of this personal affiliation I make with the album, it is on its own a great record, borderlining on excellence.

One of the best things about this album is its flow. The first tune, Lusty, is fantastic, really introducing you into the sound and the feel...only to be pulled in even more with the second track, Godbless. By the time you reach Cottonwool, you feel impressed by weary that since most albums dont continue so strongly the third track should be less than the previous two...wrong. It only gets better and better. Now of course they couldn't keep you up on such a climax so after "letting you inside their house", they give you a tour of the rooms.

The album has no real flaws, though you end up feeling that it could of been better though. Which is why they only receive 93(just above an A minus) out of 100 in my book. But of course, few albums score the required 97% to be considered a Masterpiece (Check Maxinquaye for such brilliance)

Louise Rhodes has a beautifully suited sound, touching my mind in a way that makes me want to sigh when she sings about love and agree with her when she sings about hardship, and it meshes all-so-well with beats specifically tailored to carry that talent. That's what I like about Lamb; the acknowledgement that she's an instrument all to herself, haunting in some rights seemingly delicate in others, because this approach allows her to become something akin to the heartbeat of the song itself. In that right Rhodes does something that alot of other musicians can't, finding depths and points deeper still, and crafting emotions out of words. Sometimes they are beautiful things too, like the fluttering sigh of a butterfly in the breeze or the brush of a storm touching dry skies. and sometimes they scream like shadows in the delicate words the broken cry.

The first song I hear her carry was "God Bless," and I thought that it was beautiful. There was so much motion in the tune, the beat shuffling with little motions and a drum-n-beat soul, and yet she was in the center, like calm in the storm. As I listened I noticed she was doing something odd for a drum-n-beat song too, singing about love as the song modified in its complexities and doing it well. And I found myself happy with it, thinking "yeah, I know exactly what she's saying."
"Here's to happiness."
This introduction wasn't a fluke, either, because so much of what Lamb is sounds just like that. There are mad shuffling beats here and there, silent and then frantic in songs like Cotton Wool, and yet Rhodes is there singing about love and offering a heart and it all seems to make sense. There are also deep symbols-n-bass beats that move through almost dark motions, with Trans Fatty Acids working as an example of that, and she still stands above it promising that she'll protect the heart from winter's chill. I also have to note the warm embrace of tracks like Gold when I cite something lovely, the fondness brought out in a track like Closer, and beautifully-written songs like Gorecki. God, I like that song enough not to try to describe how pretty it is.

There's another side of that emotional scope too, with the other the emotive sonnet sometimes echoing a very believable pain. Rhodes carries that just as well as she does love and adoration, speaking hymns of loneliness like a believer, and those little drifts are so full. Zero is a song that speaks an aloneness that many can agree with because it sparks what hearts truly feel when they hurt or are alone. And Feela talks about the pain that comes when something is over, when tears are shed and the world seems broken, and its minimalist beat and lyrics convey that so well. "This could have been something, this could have been really something, tell me something more, tell me something more worth living for." It seems - painful - when that songs bleeds to stage.

I'm not really sure what else should be said about someone that talented, save that her musical compatriot is equally-gifted when it comes to the motions of the beat. And the albums keep this tempo, getting better as time progresses.

The music is excellent. No arguement there. But for me the experience of listening to this is totally soured by the risable, adolescent lyrics. It appears that only one other reviewer (so far) has noticed this, or is bothered by it. But, even the (almost constant) stream of lyrical cliches would have been forgivable, had it not been for the utter preposterousness of the singers delivery. She sings her lyrics with all the delusional conviction of a tiresome 14 year old, utterly convinced she has 'had these, like, amazing mysterious thoughts' and it is her compelling destiny to bestow new truths on us all. Oh dear.

Lamb have always been the more serious face of the Breakbeat/Drum 'n' Bass fusion scene, since their introduction in 1997, their's was a fusion of Breakbeat & Intelligent Jungle breaks providing the drum patterns, over which a keen ear for reinterpreting (or reworking) elements of 'Classical' & brooding 'Jazz' instrumentation, over these breakbeats would lend an inescapable air of sophistication to their music. All intense String arrangements, Eerie Cello, and complex drum patterns over which vocalist 'Louise Rhodes' delivers spooky, and Angst-ridden vocal song-oriented passages. (Think, if "Portishead" did moody Breakbeat-orientated songs).

This, their debut album, is a perfect encapsulation of what the band do best. The opener "Lusty" is a energetic starter, with insistent Jungle breakbeats immediately kicking into action, building up into something, although not quite something to actually dance to, is rhythmically more intense than Lamb are usually known for, the torch bearing vocal of 'Louise' is a particular standout here, never quite allowing the buzzing beats to drown out her bittersweet lyrics.

"Cotton Wool" is more akin, to the abstract drum patterns usually associated with someone like "Squarepusher" or "Aphex Twin", and although never quite reaching that level of intensity (as it would break the flow of the song), but still retaining that (subtle) level of skittering & Broken drum beats, that they are know for. Which is at odds with its melancholic Cool jazz arrangements, and even Louise's vocal timing sits slightly uncomfortable with the constantly changing & rapid fire beats. Yet in spite of itself, it works remarkably well, and its a testament to the production skills of producer "Andrew Barlow", to bring all these disparate elements together, to make one of the tightest songs on the album. (In an offbeat kind of way).

If there is a song on the album that marks itself out as epic, then "Trans fatty Acid" is easily that track. A 7:37 minute modernistic masterpiece that pushes every theatrical button, and Soothing, reflective soul-inflected groove it can lay its hands on. Elegant, without being obvious, Jazz-referencing without trying to be knowingly cool, Sensual without resorting to cliche, sinister strings, throbbing Cello bass, and a dark sense of romanticism, with detached cool, underpin this track. And 'Louise' assumes a wistful cathartic diva poise, to jaw-dropping effect. (that 'Portishead' comparsion I made earlier isn't sounding so crazy now, is it??)....such is the brilliance of this track, that Chill-out kingpins "Kruder & Dorfmeister" would later remix this track for their "K&D Sessions" album.

What follows later is a sublime mix of Classical-inspired instrumentals ("Merge"), organic Trip-Hop coupled with smoky Jazz ("Gold"), muted chamber music, ingeniously devised dexterous synthetic bass and intricate drum programming, that although never truly took 'Lamb' into the mainstream in the same way as 'Portishead' & 'Tricky' were able to, they were able to make a significant impact on the underground Trip-hop scene. And also like Portishead / Tricky / Massive Attack, this is a album that became part of the 'Trip-Hop' explosion in the mid 90's, and even now, going back to it, some 6-7 years later, it still feels as vital as it did on its initial release.