Love Is All: Nine Times That Same Song

Springing from the wreckage of Girlfriendo, LIA have the air of a band concocting households of ill-matched residents to see if they can find a way to make them live in harmony. And sometimes, it comes together beautifully, like ‘Used Good’’s glorious Eurovisional boom-boom-boom.

It’s not surprising that the most recent golden age of indie and the golden age of the four-track EP coincided – it’s arguable that for bands embracing jangly experimentation, much more than four tracks and the cacophony starts to outweigh the magic. But Love Is All are old enough hands at this game to know the risks.

So, once past ‘Busy Doing Nothing’’s pleasing marriage of Madness and Siouxsie Sioux, ‘Nine Times That Same Song’ settles down like an old married couple; but one that still feels the burn of first love, and has amazing sex. ‘Turn The TV Off’ and ‘Felt Tip’ are gorgeous, calm, refreshing songs in the way that a bloody good cry can clear out the most banging of headaches and leave you feeling much, much better.You’ll have heard we’re living in the last days of the album, and so a world without confused, exhilarating, surprising jumbles like this will be a sorrier place.

Simon Hayes Budgen