Release Date: Jan. 17, 2012
As a culture, we all may be a little romantically dysfunctional. High Fidelity was hardly the first time that somebody observed the way we talk about, think about, and tell stories about romance.
Right down to its title, No One Loves You Like I Do, the latest offering from Kansas City-based The Life And Times walks the line between old romantic cliché and dark, disturbing undercurrents. For instance, this is an album that comes directly from a place where “I Love You” is not just a promise, but also a threat and a desperate, breathless plea. Loves takes the narrative route, with each “chapter” marked by different days in a 12-day period.
Although not an explicit narrative (days “Four” and “Seven” are noticeably absent), the story unfolds in bits and pieces, courtesy of a detached narrator, droning, “I love you/ I’ll keep you forever/ They want you/ Don’t listen/ I’ll tell you all the things you need to know.” Told out of order (the tracklist begins with “Day Six”) and over sparse, airy instrumentation, the storytelling is dry and unnerving. Loves takes the traditional indie-rock formula of dark lyrics layered over cheerful hooks and reverses it, turning the predictable sadsack routine into sociopathic optimism. Chilling.
Unfortunately, The Life And Times have yet to display a musical range capable of complementing such an excellent concept. They wear their progressive-rock roots very firmly on their sleeves, which causes many of the record’s songs to slip into an indistinct buzz. This doesn’t mean there aren’t standouts; see “Day One,” which blends fuzzy instrumentation and ethereal vocals with an excellent driving beat, as the narrator—ever the victim and villain—watches the object of his affection as she sleeps. Surely, it must be “love.” Also compelling is “Day Three,” vaguely recalling a fight while taking the chance to remind listeners that “history will eat itself” in a manner that is, oddly enough, strangely hopeful.
This is an album that comes directly from a place where “I Love You” is not just a promise, but also a threat and a desperate, breathless plea.
Overall, the problem with Loves isn’t the ambition; it’s the muddy, half-assed execution. Where the album should be groundbreaking, it instead leads the audience into the middle of the story and simply abandons them. The cough syrup-drunk vocals simply aren’t capable of delivering the range of emotion that the band seems to strive for. When it works, it works well. Sadly, it doesn’t work well enough nor often enough. The deadpan “I Love You”s of the record are dark and brooding, but aren’t nearly as head-turning as they should be. Is the delivery meant to evoke anger? Despair? Fear?
Herein lies the problem of making a concept-album-length narrative out of Loves’ strong central conceit: the band just doesn’t seem have the musical range to tell an album-length story. Strong songs are packed next to songs that sound all too similar, and both wind up worse instead of better for the context. Ultimately, Loves is a sonic landscape with zero inhabitants, a fireworks display without a heart. Despite having chosen to dwell in a thematic place that other artists are merely content to dip their toes in, The Life And Times are not nearly as interesting as they could be. The result is an aggravatingly inoffensive record about offensive people and even more offensive song structures, thereby making the entire affair (ironically) all the more damnable. Loves, a concept record with stalkers who fail to make a move and melodies that sit apathetically on the sidelines, falls short not for what it is, but rather, what it isn’t.
The Life and Times – No One Loves You Like I Do tracklist:
- “Day Six”
- “Day Nine”
- “Day One”
- “Day Five”
- “Day Three”
- “Day Eleven”
- “Day Ten”
- “Day Two”
- “Day Twelve”
- “Day Eight”
