Lavender Diamond Imagine Our Love(2007)[FLAC] torrent

Imagine Our Love [2007]Rough Trade / RTRADCDP 395


1. Oh No
2. Garden Rose
3. Open Your Heart
4. Side of the Lord
5. I\'ll Never Lie Again
6. Dance Until It\'s Tomorrow
7. Like an Arrow
8. My Shadow Is a Monday
9. Bring Me a Song
10. Here Comes One
11. Find a Way
12. When You Wake for Certain

The Summer of Love may have been 40 years ago, but its spirit is kept very much alive by hotly-tipped Los Angeles folk-rock quartet Lavender Diamond. As if the names of both the group and their debut album weren’t evidence enough of their unashamed hippie sensibilities, a visit to Lavender Diamond’s website reveals singer Becky Stark sweetly extolling the virtues of universal love in a band diary and series of cartoon strips entitled Peace Comics.


All very charming and no doubt well-intentioned, but what of their music? Well, fans of Carole King, The Indigo Girls and New York’s criminally underrated Hem will certainly find much to enjoy on Imagine Our Love. Stark belts out tasteful, soaring melodies over a rich and full musical backing of guitar, piano, strings and woodwind, which when combined gives songs like “Open Your Heart” and “Here Comes One” a euphoric, almost hymnal quality. Sure, the lyrics are as cloyingly sentimental as their website would suggest, and the whole affair has all the edginess of a Women’s Institute bring and buy sale, but what they do, Lavender Diamond do very well indeed.


Variation of style is thin on the ground, although occasionally a slower number, such as the Bacharach-aping “Bring Me A Song” or the country-inflected “Garden Rose” injects a welcome change of pace on a record that, at 51 minutes, is maybe a couple of tracks too long. Best of all is “Dance Until Tomorrow”, which showcases the classically-trained Stark’s dauntingly impressive vocal range to stunning effect.


A rare instrument indeed, capable of recalling Karen Carpenter, Linda Ronstadt and even Liz Fraser of the Cocteau Twins within the same song, Stark’s voice is the centrepiece of an album which, without her presence, would struggle to stand out beyond the merely pleasant. But with her on board, Lavender Diamond certainly have the potential to scale greater heights, although one cannot help but think that a slight toning down of the kaftan-clad flower child influences might give their music the much needed bite required to emerge from the shadows of winsome cultdom.

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