On their debut EP, Cavalry of Light, Lavender Diamond proved they have a way with seemingly effortless, timeless-sounding songs. Their first full-length, Imagine Our Love, delivers more of their classic but fresh sound, this time with a bit more polish. As the album title suggests, Imagine Our Love's songs are about looking at love from a distance that is sometimes wistful, sometimes hopeful -- or on occasion, both, as on the opening track, "Oh No," where singer Becky Stark's honeyed voice repeats "when will I love again?" over and over, going from optimistic to despairing and back again. It's a trick the band used on Cavalry of Light's "You Broke My Heart" and it works well here too, giving this song and "Like an Arrow" a hypnotic simplicity. The more fleshed-out sound of Imagine Our Love does justice not only to Stark's immaculate soprano, but to the band's eclectic sound. The lavish strings that grace most of the album are surprisingly versatile, lending extra buoyancy to "Open Your Heart"'s soaring pop and slow-burning drama to the countrified "Garden Rose." Songs such as "My Shadow Is a Monday," "Bring Me a Song," and "Here Comes One" show that while Lavender Diamond's heart belongs to the late-'60s/early-'70s heyday of singer/songwriters, AM pop, and country-pop, the band's homages never feel contrived. They aren't all sweetness and light, either, although "Find a Way" positively radiates hope; on "Side of the Lord," Stark laments, "I don't know if I'm to the left or the right," adding just enough grit to the song's mother-of-pearl luminosity. Gently compelling, Imagine Our Love is a striking debut.
4. Here Comes One, by Lavender DiamondTaken as a whole, this album is a bit thin, but there are some real stand-out tracks. The piano in this one is irresistable to me (ditto the tiny dashes of new wave synth). Also, "You have opened your heart with your mind"? Some of their songs are so irrationally positive as to verge on Christian radio territory, but this is an upbeat message I can get behi...
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4. Here Comes One, by Lavender DiamondTaken as a whole, this album is a bit thin, but there are some real stand-out tracks. The piano in this one is irresistable to me (ditto the tiny dashes of new wave synth). Also, "You have opened your heart with your mind"? Some of their songs are so irrationally positive as to verge on Christian radio territory, but this is an upbeat message I can get behi...
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I like plenty of hard music. There's nothing I like better than a few minutes of pogoing around the house to snotty punk songs. And I'm a long-time devotee of The Melvins, who put the slow in hard better than almost anyone. But I also have a side that seems impossible to reconcile with those taste preferences to some people. I've had friends over the years who express befuddlement at my love of...
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 "Imagine Our Love")
