The Lorries
' first full album kicks off with the grinding title track -- steady, not punishing, but still aggressive beats, slashing guitar,
Chris Reed
's abrupt but not shouted vocals. In retrospect the band actually make a great case for being the slightly more romantic
Big Black
instead of just being the
Sisters
/
Joy Division
, Pt. 2 with this song, and keeping that in mind,
Talk About the Weather
has more going on for it than meets the eye. There's certainly more than a little ghost-of-
Andrew Eldritch
in the arrangements, not to mention
Ennio Morricone
(thus trumping
the Fields of the Nephilim
's own twist on that influence by a couple of years), but
Reed
's lyrics and singing definitely show the
Ian Curtis
touch more in their emotional roil as opposed to
Hammer
horror. As a result, compared to
the Sex Gang Children
or the like,
the Lorries
come across more straightforwardly, their music here sounding often brusque. The album's downside is that the basic sound doesn't really change much, but when it's on, as with the title track, it's very much on.
"Hollow Eyes"
is another one of the winners, taking the high-speed, nervous
post-punk
approach and adding on a great, simple, but effective chorus to the spiralling riffs and the hollow bass lope, while the sudden shift in velocity on
"Strange Dreams"
shows a great sense of drama.
"Sometimes"
ranks up there as well for being the secret winner -- it's the closest the album gets to a quiet and tender love song, which it really isn't per se. But
's singing aims at a warmer approach here on the chorus, as does the music, and there's definitely a tangled emotional interplay that comes through, love and hate in a few words. ~ Ned Raggett