Here Is Night, Brothers, Here the Birds Burn

Taking a listen to the second full-length by Love Life, it's quite easy to see that the band is no doubt the bastard child of the VSS and Bauhaus, with a grandparent who was involved heavily in the D.C. scene (think Make-Up kin, not Minor Threat). Katrina Ford's vocals have powerful range on this eight-song disc. She can go incredibly low and guttural and then suddenly sound serene. With the use of the circus-sounding organ, it's hard to take this album seriously in its entirety. Not that the effect of the organ is overdone, but combined with a woman who can sing deeper than most men and the album's general lack of accessibility to the average listener, this will no doubt fly over the heads of many underground music fans. And seeing as to how jaded indie rock kids would much rather make fun of something they don't understand than take the time to figure it out, this unfortunate pattern will most likely continue with Here Is Night, Brothers, Here the Birds Burn. On the flip side, Love Life seems to have a good cult following and, with song titles like "V" and "*" (don't worry, not all the song titles are singular keys), certainly all the pseudo-goth fans will be digging this.