Lacto-Ovo - Shoes & You
(Smokeylung)
Shoes & You is all about shoes, and how appropriate,
since shoes come in an array of styles and colors, as
does this album. Sometimes there's nothing better than
a pair of new shoes! Kick off your own, why don't you,
and listen to Lacto-Ovo's North American debut. Shoes
& You is a comfy mix of pop, rock, and exciting
experimentation with synthesizers and other sounds.
Dont get too comfortable, though, because Shoes & You
will keep you on your toes with its collection of
songs that can be a little schizophrenic.
In "River," for example, the styles are a surprising
mix and change without notice. A couple guitars play
an eerie music box-like melody, but suddenly, the band
breaks out into what sounds to me like a combination
of ska and surf music, and this becomes more solid
rock guitars. The majority of the song alternates
between surf/ska and rock, but comes back to simple,
mysterious music, similar to the beginning. You might
think the transitions between styles would be too
abrupt, but they are actually quite natural.
Many of Shoes & Yous songs follow this sort of
structure. Almost all of them have sections of simple
music that build to intense, distorted climaxes. As
youll discover with just a short listen to Shoes &
You, many Lacto-Ovo songs are not complete without
some rock thrown in here and there. ("I Fell From
Space," "Black And White Cats," "Your Sweet Shoe," to name
some.)
Despite similar structure on a lot of the songs,
Lacto-Ovo uses the keyboards, as well as other
instruments, to make at least one prominent sound or
melody that adds personality to each track. In "I Fell
From Space," a xylophone sound over picked guitar
gives an almost frantic feel to the song. In "Your
Sweet Shoe," the dreamy slide guitars slither in the
background. In "Blue Shoes," the warm,
woodwind-sounding keyboard against cold, picked
guitars stand out.
The keyboards definitely give the album a boost, but
the other instruments, including the vocals, make
Shoes & You very worthy of your attention. For
instance, the drumming is pleasantly expressive--in
songs like "Smurf," they change moods at least three
times, going from jazzy to sparse and dramatic, to
full when the song becomes more pop. And the vocals
fit the music well, adapting to the mood of each song,
like in Black & White Cats, in which the singing is
soft and light to fit the perfectly relaxed but peppy
drums, synthesizers, and guitars.
Although Lacto-Ovo has only been together for a couple
years or so, they are already receiving much attention
at home in Australia, and after listening to Shoes &
You, you'll know why. Lacto-Ovo have taken basic pop
and rock and built upon it with creative sounds and
structure to make an album that is at once laid-back,
a little dark, colorful, and spontaneous.
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