The Long Lost - The Long Lost (2009)

By Nick Kays

Take two ridiculously talented multi instrumentalist songwriters staring into each others eyes, playing soft songs of love to each other, in front an audience of baby woodland animals and butterflies - and you have The Long Lost.

Playing a range of soft folksy electronic "progressive love rock" (yes, I made that genre up), this husband and wife duo secrete cuteness as some kind of audible goo.

I really do wish I was exaggerating, but I am literally writing this on my way to purchase a kitten.

The Long Lost's self titled album is the kind of music you hear at that trendy café where the overtly gay barista asks you how you like your latte, as you take out your Macbook and begin write the second chapter of that novel you will never finish... all while wearing your favourite brown beret.

You know the kind of café, the one that only plays Radiohead and songs from bands that could be Thom Yorke's solo record if you had ever bothered to listen to it.

See, this is the problem when you try and review a progressive and genre crossing record.

You know it sounds really musically beautiful and could easily be played after any track off Radiohead's "Kid A", but The Long Lost sound nothing like the British experimental rock group and I have just wasted an entire paragraph comparing the two.

Musically, the couple behind the music (Alfred and Laura Darlington) share the duties of vocals, guitar, bass, bass clarinet, alto flute, toy piano, omnichord, and to a lessor extent what I can assume is a range of programming-electronic effects.

Don't let the electronic aspect scare you, The Long Lost is primarily a folksy acoustic progression, however you can at times feel some sounds are slightly too crisp or perfect to be from an acoustic instrument.

One of the most amazing aspects of the record was the dynamic use of stereo.

Certain tracks utilise the movement of sounds between the two channels so beautifully you really need to be tucked inside a decent set of headphones to really appreciate it.

If I was asked to select a favourite track from the album, I couldn't. Not because they are all too cute, but I really enjoyed the entire fourteen songs and would feel as though it would be some kind of injustice to select just one.

If you do manage to pick up this album, which you should, I would definitely recommend playing the entire LP from start to finish.

The songs seem to be perfectly placed to kind of ease into the next and I definitely enjoyed listening to the album in its entirety.

RATING: 4 out of 5

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