Friday, October 06, 2006
Posted at
07:19
by
Carly Carioli
DOWNLOAD: L.E.O., "Ya Had Me Goin'" (mp3)
Obsessed with the eccentric, overblown studiocraft of Electric Light Orchestra mastermind Jeff Lynne, mutton-chopped power-pop guru Bleu rummaged together members of the Black Crowes, Chicago, Papas Fritas, and Hanson to create L.E.O.'s Alpacas Orgling (Cheap Lullaby), a disc that pays homage to the sumptuously self-indulgent arrangments (but not the literal songs) of ELO. You don’t have to be an engineering nut or a pop lifer to appreciate the disc’s hyperbolic grandeur or its three-dimensional stereo separation, the product of four years, 12 studios, and countless guest appearances. But tracks like "Ya Had Me Goin" sound like they’ve been unearthed from some velvet goldmine in the sky, a place where no falsetto is too false, no hook too sugary, and any chorus worth singing is worth being sung by no less than 30 people.
