‘Beautiful Ground’ is the debut release from Suffolk/London based ‘Something Beginning With L’. The band is made up of three members, Jen Macro, Jon Clayton and Lucy Parnell, who partner up alongside a selection of guest drummers for the purposes of the album. The trio’s influences are obviously pretty wide ranging, as they cross genre boundaries like it’s going out of fashion, mixing elements of folk, grunge, indie and electronica into a wonderfully complete first LP.
The album illustrates it’s variety straight away, kicking off with the delightful ‘Poster Croc’, a meandering fuzz fest that suddenly bursts into an unexpected and surprisingly brief pixies-esque stomp, before swiftly moving on to the more standard folk influenced indie of ‘Last Night’s Party’. This genre hopping continues throughout the album, with a delightful thread of atmosphere tying everything together nicely. There are a few tracks that stand out on their own, namely ‘Sound’, ‘Say’, ‘Mean’ and ‘Overcoat’, which would be likely choices for singles, but to take these particular songs out of the context of the album as a whole is to rob them of of much of the allure that draws the listener to them in the first place. The understated use of electronic sounds combined with the beautiful harmonies of the two girls really lends an ethereal air to proceedings, which is never more apparent than on the two closing tracks, ‘Unwittingly Beautiful’ and ’73’.
All in all, ‘Beautiful Ground’ is a fantastic debut effort from a band that clearly have a lot more to offer further down the line. Although the album doesn’t break new ground, it certainly lays the foundations for future explorations in developing a more unique sound, and that is certainly something worthy of praise in the current climate of copycats and cover bands.
‘Beautiful Ground’ was released on 27/06/11 by Armellodie records, and is available to buy at; http://somethingbeginningwithl.bandcamp.com/
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