Sky Larkin: The Golden Spike
Sky Larkin discuss The Golden Spike on their new offering.
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Thursday, 29, Jan 2009 04:54
Wichita, February 2nd 2009.
In a nutshell...
Largely forgettable, chirpy indie rock stuff.
Who's it by
Leeds-based alternative rock combo Sky Larkin.
As an example...
"Gonna cut you in pieces, pieces/Get it done as long as it takes/Gonna keep you in bottles and jars, and keep the bigger bits in the boot of the car/Just so I know you're safe." - Molten
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
Slim to nil. Maybe an NME award, NMEsters will probably like this. (In fact, the magazine referred to the album as: "Sun-stroking, cloudbusting indie", whatever that means.)
What the others say
"They've been threatening to do it for a long while, but Leeds-based alternative poppers Sky Larking finally deliver their debut album next month. And what a hook-laden indie-rock corker it is too!" - Rob Webb, Drowned in Sound
"What is apparent on The Golden Spike is that Sky Larkin have set out to remove any notions that they are merely just another twee indie band, something which threatened to litter their name, particularly in light of their early, competent-but-unspectacular live shows." - Dom Gourlay, Contactmusic.com
So is it any good?
I received this album through the post at the same time as The Stooges' 2007 comeback album The Weirdness arrived courtesy of a nice chap off eBay. I listened to The Weirdness all the way though about five times that day. Sky Larkin's record got played once and was pretty much discarded.
It may be a bit unfair to compare the relatively new indie kids on the block with one of the best known groups to emerge from the US proto-grunge rock scene, but it's a line I'm intent on pursuing...
What makes The Weirdness infinitely more listenable than The Golden Spike is raw energy (a quality that is sadly lacking in much of today's various music scenes), not to mention a song with a chorus that goes: "My idea of fun/Is killing everyone". None of this silly 'gonna chop you up and keep you in jars' business.
There's a slight aftertaste of Britpop to Sky Larkin's sound and some have compared the vocals (courtesy of Katie Harkin) to early Bjork, though I think they're closer to Diana Vickers (surely one of the most annoyingly cutesy, hand-oscillating specimens to emerge from X Factor ever?).
There is little new or particularly exciting about this album, however it is a pleasant and decent enough offering if you're quite content to not aurally wander too far from the middle of the musical road.
5/10
Mike Cotgreave