There’s something really frustrating about Love Inks. On listening to ‘E.S.P’ it is obvious they have a knack for a memorable melody and understated composition - creating clean, simple and yet satisfyingly thick music backdrops that allow vocalist Sherry LeBlanc (who reminds me of Metric’s Emily Haines, or Broadcast’s Trish Keenan, R.I.P) to weave her reverb-laden vocals over the top with minimal fuss or intrusion - but it also feels like they haven’t developed any of these songs to their full potential; something crucial seems to be missing from the entire album. This is partly intentional: the recording process for the album was designed to be as honest, undigitised, and free of editing as possible. It was recorded by the band at home in Austin and mixed by a friend. They tried to get the “purest” sounds from each instrument by recording them straight to a reel-to-reel tape deck. In terms of instrumentation they only used an electric guitar, an electric bass, an old drum machine and a Moog Satellite synth. These self-imposed rules have led to an album aesthetically coherent, yet sparse and skeletal. Even within their own parameters, however, it still feels underdeveloped in places. Lead single Blackeye is immediate, catchy, and features some beautifully interspersed guitar and bass riffs, but, clocking in at less than two minutes, it feels like a proto-song - a brilliant idea still in the demo stage, crying out for a more detailed arrangement.
I’d have more time for this proto-song feel if their conceptual ideas made more sense. The notion of this kind of music being “pure” or “undigitised” just seems wrong - every instrument on this album is electric, and in order to get any sound out of such an instrument, the organic tones have to be processed. Also, ‘E.S.P’ sounds SO similar to post-punk legends Young Marble Giants that it at times it feels like they’ve entirely stolen their aesthetic. They’re no doubt aware of this: the similarities between the two bands in recording style, instrumentation and song structures are so strong that this must be an homage of sorts. It’s all well and good taking inspiration from your idols - and over the past 6 years various facets of post-punk have experienced revivals, so this aesthetic choice doesn’t surprise - but when a band sounds almost exactly the same as another, it’s hard not to feel like something is wrong. Despite this rampant negativity, there is an undeniable potential that lurks within, some genuinely apt and intriguing aspects of song writing, but Love Inks could benefit from developing the songs more, expanding their aesthetic, and not restricting themselves with incoherent conceptual parameters.