The Loves / The Loves Love You

The Loves
The Loves Love You
(Fortuna POP!)

There’s something automatically brilliant about a band who recruits a Velvet Underground member to guest on their album as the voice of Jesus’ answering machine.
In fact, let’s cut to this point in the album right away. We’re halfway through the carefree lazy lament ‘It’s The End of the World’ when singer Simon says; “I tried to talk to Jesus, and he said...”
Enter stage left, Doug Yule of the Velvets; “Hi this is Jesus. I’m not here right now. I’m everywhere. Please leave a message after the tone.”
I don’t want to get too hung up (boom boom) on this one point in the album, but the fact it’s not even one of the super cool members of the VU making this appearance somehow makes it all the more perfect. Sigh... Right! Let’s review the record.
Cardiff’s The Loves recorded their final album live in the basement under a ukulele shop, a comic touch which fits perfectly with the zesty psychedelic pop music and sense of humour which runs through it. If there’s a theme at all, it’s summed up by the song title ‘WTF? (Or How I Realised I’d Wasted My Life)’ - acid flashbacks, ex-girlfriends and bittersweet regrets crop up throughout the lyrics. Gloom is the last thing on their minds however: in fact it’s a carefree amusement in the face of gloom which more accurately reflects the tone, summed up by another throwaway pun; ‘I Lost My Doll To Rock & Roll’.
Being on Fortuna POP! this is of course a warm and broadly cute indie album. There are diversions into White Stripes-style crunchiness (‘King Kong Blues’) and even Fall-esque lyrical rants (“Your girlfriend left the band / and all you got was an STD!”) For the most part however, you’re more likely to bump into ABBA, The Zombies or The Walker Brothers, all filtered through The Loves’ own special brew of Kool Aid.
According to reports the band will be waving goodbye with a special Valentines Day party, so I guess this really is the last record. We can only speculate as to why, but one working title for this album might offer a clue; ‘The Pains of Being Poor Through Art’. Wherever life takes them in the future, it’s been illuminating.