Reviews

Artist:The Lost Notes
Album: Good Luck Shoes
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 10
Website: https://www.thelostnotes.co.uk/

The third album by the Birmingham quintet, and their first with new (electric) bass player Steve Vantsis, is a luminous testament to their ever growing quality and confidence in terms of both music and song, this time round bringing a stronger country flavour to their folk, blues and jazz foundation.

All bar one number written by frontman Ben Mills, 'Don't Try It On Me' opens with a unaccompanied three part harmony take on the title refrain before he takes lead on an acoustic strummed song of relationship frustration captured in its chorus ("'Cos you can play the angel in my bed/Try to put the devil in my head/Talking like a saviour in the light/And quiet like the nightmare that I fight/It's like you want a fool to try your games/Darling not all fools play the same/So don't try it on me"), the mid-section a fine example of their signature trick of disrupting the rhythm.

In their live set for a while and tapping into recurring watery imagery, the same holds true (on the refrain) of 'Run Like A River', from whence the album title derives, that scampers along with bluegrassy undercurrents down a trail of revenge ("I had my heart broken by the barrel of a gun/I just stopped and watched them ride away/Before my tears started rolling I had started on my plan… Well I headed to the Badlands in my grandpa's pick-up truck/I had no time to ask him if I could/And I found those boys in Belvidere/And I watched them laugh and share a beer…And I got me some whiskey and I got pretty high/I pulled up just outside the bar/And on the stroke of midnight as they rolled into the road/I lined them up and hit them good and hard"), hitting the road to avoid a hanging and then committing suicide ("So I rode up to the canyon saw the water far below/Took two paces from the edge and then I knew").

'Mine Is The Heart' slows it down with circling fingerpicked guitar from Oli Jobes with Lucy Mills (who designed the cover) on vocals on a number that has a definite passing melodic association with Baez's 'Diamonds & Rust' as it recounts an addictive toxic relationship ("don't ever feel like forgetting/You are the fever I'm never shaking/You walk away when I'm here for the taking/Mine is the heart that you'll keep breaking… I'm like winter's cold/You will only touch/But never hold…This flower holds/Colours deep within/These leaves cannot unfurl/Where love has never been").

Another circling fingerpicked pattern and Max Tomlinson's steady drum beat carries 'No Place Like Home', a wistful life on the road reflection on things left behind ("I'm sitting in the corner/Another bar another place/Trying to hold on to the dream/I gave it all up to chase") and of music carrying the memories ("Then I hear from in the shadows/Someone's whistling that old tune/One of those we used to sing in our front room/Where father plays piano/Mother's plucking at her old banjo/And everybody's sharing the songs they know") with its message "wander where you will/Take your time to search around/But if what you find's not good enough/Don't be too proud to turn around".

Wordplay is a signature aspect of Ben's lyrics, case in point being the acoustic bluesy 'God Loves A Sinner', another live favourite, which opens with "We played guitars/And I broke your heart strings/I was the king of playing you for a fool" adding "I was your drummer but I missed the beat" on a song about screwing up a good thing and looking for another chance ("God knows all the chances that you gave to me have gone/But if you're willing and if I'm able/We could right this love gone wrong") and to "pick between the pieces of my broken heart/See if enough remains to build a better man".

Pulling the harmonies back into focus, the ironically named more musically upbeat 'Slow Down' with its tumbling lyrics is one of those take time to smell the roses songs ("People all running like they can't sit still/Always tripping down valleys or they're climbing up hills/Nobody's got time to take a good look round") with a particular focus on finding time for the family ("Children waiting by the door/Every night it seems to them/They wait a little bit more/Slow down papa/Won't you spend a little time with me… Tell me 'bout the world when you were young… We could share a book or we could play outside/Maybe you could go seek and I'll go hide"). It also comes with a catchy Paul Simon-esque "Sha la la la la la la" refrain.

Returning to water imagery, 'I'll Be The River' is another rhythmically urgent track, a love story given a headwind ("We'll ride like wild horses straight for the sun/This love has never walked it has only ever run… Hurricanes can rage and skies can snow/We'll raise our sails up high and follow where she blows") with its chorus of "I'll be the river, the river, the river/I'll be the river, I'm running back to you/You be the mountain, the mountain, the mountain/You be the mountain, I'm coming back to you", Olly fluttering the high note guitar strings like a mandolin while Max thumps in the background, the background and lead vocals overlapping in call and "running back to you" response.

Written by Oli with Ben on wailing harp, 'Whiskey For Breakfast' is a slow staccato, lurching blues about a relationship ("I heard you talking on the phone last night/You were telling your mother all about another fight/That you were thinking of leaving, giving up on our vow/'Cos the man that you married is not the man here now") and life that's gone down the tubes ("No one will hire me because of one small mistake/But the kids needed shelter and food on their plate/So I took up an offer I should have refused/Now a year behind bars and I've nothing left to lose"), and can't be reclaimed ("All that I can offer, all that I can give/Is a promise to always love you and the kids/But you can't live on a promise so I'll be on my way/With a whiskey for breakfast another bad day").

One final splash in the water, Steve's bass the anchor, the shuffling waltzer 'Let It Rain' again twists the knife in a relationship ("Where would we be now if I'd not changed my mind/If I'd gone home as planned at a quarter to nine/But I stopped off at Mario's Pizza Shack down by the sea/To my surprise you were there but not waiting for me… He was young and good looking, a keeper for sure/And you didn't see me just inside the door/You made curls in his hair, rocked back on his knee/Watching you was the last place I wanted to be"), the chorus ("Let it rain on me/Love has no guarantee/You took it all from me") a real crowd swayalong.

It ends, scat singing , Oli on uke and Ben breaking out the trumpet solo, with perhaps the darkest song in the repertoire, the menacing scuffing jazzy blues of 'Wildman', a snapshot of, as the blurb puts it, "a deliriously optimistic psychopath with a death wish" who announces "I'm a poisoned margarita/I'm the glass that cuts your lip/I'm the dancer with a switchblade/I'm the beat that your heart skipped/And I'm a barber with a trembling hand/Sweating for a line/I'm the fist that thunders on the table/I'm the hurt that has no crime", adding "I'm the short side of a wishbone/A three-armed crucifix/I'm the silence on your telephone/I'm the nightmare you can't shift/I'm a sniper with a crosshair/ Trained upon your chest/I'm the whistle of the bullet/I'm the crimson on your breast" and declaring "Hell is where I'm headed/And I don't care if I die".

Like our deranged killer, the band consistently hit the target dead centre, no note lost or out of place and, to extend the title, they are musically most definitely the Jimmy Choos and Laboutins in the footwear department.

Mike Davies

Previous	Next
Tomorrow Bird: Braver Days	The Guilty Men: Invisible Confetti

Recent Reviews

Wildman

Fatea Showcase Sessions

The Fatea Showcase Sessions are a series of downloads featuring acts that we've really enjoyed and think that more people should get the chance to hear.

Pirate is the current session and features 16 fantastic artists check out the website to find out more about them and download your copy

www.fatea-showcase-sessions.co.uk for all the artist information.

Visit The FATEA Archive!