O’Lovely’s Constellations is a dreamy but dark odyssey into the world of guitar static,synthesizers, crisp drum claps and haunted vocals. It is a transfixing listen which will no doubt garner this young band some serious attention.
Hailing from Christchurch, O’Lovely have obviously done their musical homework. On the album’s best track, Waste My Time, they recall the grave, trance-like sound of Joy Division, while on Bright Lights platinum blonde lead singer Laura Lee seems to be channelling Debbie Harry.
However, the band manage to avoid sounding derivative as the songs have a power all of their own. Often the lyrics seem to have a poignant quiet despair about them emphasized by the repetition of key lines (especially on Friends on which Lee mournfully repeats “friends, we used to be friends...”) which mirror the hypnotic rhythmic patterns. On Waste My Time, “I just want to waste my time having a good time” is repeated over the chorus as if as a mantra for a disconnected generation, yet on A Different Day there is a great vitality and freshness embodied in the declaration that “the righteous and the strong will get shot down” and the song almost feels like a statement of intent for a band on the verge of making a huge impact in the local (and let’s hope international) scene.
O’Lovely make frequent use of atmospheric distortion and noise on tracks like Wild Flames and opener Distant Mind which adds texture to the songs, but at times seems a tad overdone and is the one element of the album that can feel slightly forced on certain tracks. However, in general Constellations is a highly interesting debut from a band with a fully conceived and well executed sound.
