Album Review – Little Red – Listen to Little Red
Reminiscent of the Beach Boys, with their choral harmonies, laid back attitude and school boy romanticism, Little Red are playful and retroesque. The old-fashioned rock band, Little Red’s album Listen to Little Red has excellent bass lines and melodic guitar notes, but their lyrics verge on corny a lot of the time. The third song on the album, Stare In Love, naiively sings “Staring in the face of love.”
Little Red’s forte definitely lies in their guitar and bass playing. The electric guitar in the fourth song on the album, Waiting, is wonderfully funky.
The band enjoy toying with a lot of pop styles; love songs, consumer jingles etc. The debut tune, Coca Cola is a light hearted parody of a soft drink advertisement. “My one and only advice is Coke, Coke Coca Cola and ice.” Listening to it is listening to an incredibly enjoyable advertisment. Their playful concern with the material reality of pop culture is reminiscent of Frank O’Hara’s love of the bric-a-bric of modern life.
The album thumps along with incredibly catchy bass lines and old-fashioned guitar rhythms, but their lyrics are corny. Their love-sick juvenile lyrics are not to everyone’s taste and although the 50′s-style puppy dog romanticism is at best cute, after a few listens, it does grate on your nerves.
I do though, recommend this album for the excellent bass lines, melodic guitar notes and great retro 50′s and 60′s sounds. The song Jackie Cooper sounds like an authentic Elvis song. Or the song It’s Alright is a wonderful knock off of a 50′s romance song.
