It's New to Me: The La's by the La's

Detail of illustration by Vladimir Kirin from Iv. Brlic-Mazuranic's Croatian Tales of Long Ago, 1922

In fits and starts, I've been exploring early '90s brit-pop lately - I consider it a scene I could have really gotten into at the time if I hadn't still been obsessed with US college rock from the '80s. The self-titled album by the La's is an easy album to acquire - turn around and you're likely to see one sitting in a cardboard box with a sticker on it that says "$2 OBO" - but it's also a record with an interesting story, a single anachronistic hit single, and a lot of under-appreciated first-rate songwriting.

1990's The La's is an album that can barely be visible in the shadow of its stand-out single, "There She Goes". The single was actually released in 1988, a full two years before the band's only album came out. But some bands work this way - the La's existed as a band starting in 1984, so they were obviously in no hurry. And this became more apparent as time went on, even as the band was hailed in England as a great new talent. The La's was recorded with famous producer Steve Lillywhite, and the band was apparently quite unhappy with the process and the results. The band's frontman, the eccentric Lee Mavers, publicly and consistently disowned the record, stating that the band played the songs poorly during recording sessions in hope that the results would never see the light of day. Mavers vowed to re-record the record in the manner that he had originally intended, and that the second La's album would not be recorded until this had happened. And it never happened. So all we have is this heavily flawed document of the band (albeit supplemented as of last year by an expanded version including the band's demos of the songs from The La's).

The interesting thing about The La's is that it has a definite set of influences, most notable pre-1965 British pop and Merseybeat, but it shows a surprising variety of approaches to its influences. Like the original UK beat bands, some of the songs here lean more toward '50s R&B sounds, where other songs could almost be replicas of skiffle-pop. None of the other tracks have the soaring, reverb-laden melodies of "There She Goes", but I find a lot of the album to be just as appealing (moreso, even, by virtue of being less familiar.) "Feelin'" has a great intro riff and bare-bones rock arrangement straight out of Hard Day's Night, but the album's other single "Timeless Melody" has a thick guitar sound and nice layered vocals - it's hard to believe that this was a band trying to sound crappy. Bluesy songs like "Doledrum" and "IOU" have a different sort of retro vibe, and the closing epic, "Looking Glass", is full of ideas and shows where the band might have been going if they hadn't decided to throw it all away.

My favorite song The La's is probably "Way Out", which I think was originally released as the band's very first single back in 1987. It has a nice chiming, Byrdsy riff and a sped-up waltz feel to it, with Lee Mavers singing in a spiteful-sounding voice about ... I dunno, probably drugs. According to some, all their songs were about drugs - even "There She Goes". If true, it could explain their inability to get their act together and record another record.

"Way Out" by the La's