San Francisco’s The Love-Birds have been tearing up their local scene, breaking hearts and making fans across the city’s disappearing DIY spaces and proper venues alike since 2016. After releasing a 7-inch EP in early 2017 via local label Empty Cellar Records, they’re ready to unveil In The Lover’s Corner, their debut album & first release on their new home, Trouble In Mind.
The album eases into view with the first track, “Again”; it’s gentle acoustic strum augmented by guitarist Eli Wald's chiming electric twelve-string. From there the listener is treated to dynamic, life-affirming power-pop; bell-ringing, fuzz stompers (”River Jordan”), warm, carefully crafted fragile pop (”Clear The Air”, “Failure and Disgrace”), and urgent, crystalline rockers (”Hit My Head”, “Weak Riff”). The Love-Birds approach their craft with a classicist’s ear; with nods to their Seventies originators as well as Nineties torch-bearers, composing near perfect future classics that ooze with subtle, interesting melodic twists and hummable, finger-pricking hooks that are instantly memorable. Aside from mastering by Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub), In The Lover’s Corner is a decidedly local affair, with album art by Shayde Sartin (Fresh & Onlys, Sonny and the Sunsets) and recorded in two sessions, one with engineer Glenn Donaldson (Art Museums, Skygreen Leopards) and another with Kelley Stoltz.
RIYL: Twin Peaks, Teenage Fanclub, dBs, Game Theory, R.E.M., Replacements