Search - Weekend :: La Variete

'Diversity and Depth'

Paul Ess. | Holywell, N.Wales,UK. | 05/02/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Weekend's superb 1st lp returns from the grave and operates entirely in the shadows. It's like something in the corner of your vision - you think you've seen it swirling and drifting but you're not sure. Like ethereal mist it permeates, swamps its environment before losing the unsuspecting listener in its folds, in its caress...



Reviewers were a bit bamboozled initially. It takes ages for this to sink in - not a week, or however long they normally get - but by the end of the year suspicion had melted away and 'la V' became firmly esconced in many Festive Fave lists.



On the surface, it's dreamy, melodic, jazzy-pop. Scratch the surface, and thats still what it is, but with its heart in the right place and its soul intact.



You just can't help TRUSTING an album like this. It should probably exist in a heavy-metal style netherworld, where groups never sell out and your favorite combo never disappoint. Artistes are never routinely destroyed by vile record company execs demanding hit singles and albums, music isn't written on cash registers and no-ones heard of obscenely over-hyped mediocrity like the Killers or Franz Ferdinand.



(Un)Surprisingly, 'la V' may still be ahead of its time. The 'masses' still wont be able to handle a sound this open, this breathy, this beautiful. The 'kids' seem to want sweat and loud and insular, and in this context 'la V' will never fit in, never be appreciated.



Its a point I'm almost in tears making, but everyone in the country should own 'la V', not just a few cognoscenti. It should be given away free in a Sunday newspaper, in the (vain) hope that it'll make some kind of impression - that it'll sink in SOMEWHERE.

Cherry Red have always been a decent label, and deserve credit for re-introducing 'lost' gems like this. Go on, make 'em rich."