The Lionelle - Oh! The Company That We Keep!

LOCAL REVIEW
The Lionelle
Oh! The Company We Keep!
(12.2007, Self Released)
9.0/10

The last recorded footprint we had from The Lionelle was filled with pared down, acoustic treatments that made up an EP's worth of material. Subsequent attendance of their live sets saw those same songs re-imagined into a full band format, terrorizing the little ghosts of those songs into Frankensteinian monsters. The outcome was exciting to say the least and the impending recorded results have long been awaited. Now, months later, Oh! The Company We Keep! (The Lionelle love their exclamation points!) is here and the devastatingly progressive evolution of the band is jaw dropping. I really saw potential in the band when I heard that oh-so-quaint Little Bee EP, but in reality, my assertion that the band could produce the local album of the year was a bit more of a hopeful wish than an actual belief. It's a difficult thing, realizing creativity with talent, and I honestly wasn't expecting the album to be fully realized. I also didn't foresee some of the amazing output they would be competing with (Stag Hare and Navigator have additionally struck gold in 2007). Yet, even with these reservations The Lionelle have gone and done it; gone and produced the exact record that I had wildly imagined and wished they would make. The acoustic guitars have turned angular and electric, the vocals have become multi tracked and the skeleton of their EP's trappings has born flesh and muscle. The angst of youth is still intact, but the composition has become mature and beautiful. Front man Tate MCL has morphed his bedroom freak pop into an experimental, post-hardcore, pop catastrophe of generous proportions. And, with that, I am prepared to make the convoluted statement I had thought virtually impossible - I am pronouncing the bands debut my pick for best local album of the year. (Well, actually, along with the two other albums that I previously mentioned I am going to have to pronounce a three way tie, but don't let that confuse you.) Oh! The Company That We Keep! is what indie rock should be: progressive, weird and oddly catchy. Latch onto The Lionelle soon because this is the kind of music that doesn't stay local for long.

-Mr. Thistle

The Lionelle on Myspace