Album review: LARKIN POE & THOM HELL – The Sound Of The Ocean Sound

Edvins Records [Release date 04.03.13]

5 extended EPs and a live DVD over their two year career to date, and sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell have elected to share their first long playing outing with Norwegian songwriter Thom Hell.

The result – recorded over a 2 week period in Norway, and with Jamiroquai percussionist Sola Akingbola also contributing – is very much a collaborative effort with lead vocals being shared fairly evenly between Hell and the girls. For the most part his warm vocals provide a neat counterpoint, although whether the demonstration of his falsetto on P.S. I Love You was really necessary is a moot point.

While previous Larkin Poe release have been fairly broad in successfully covering a number of genres, The Sound Of The Ocean Sound is staked firmly in a the easy listening folk/country arena with the distinctive Larkin Poe vocal harmonies and signature mandolin and dobro sound all present and correct.

But to these ears, the material just doesn’t leave an enduring mark in the way that previous releases have, and in particular there’s an absence of mainstream crossover appeal. It’s pleasant enough, but in charting new territory The Sound Of The Ocean Sound may actually have diluted Larkin Poe’s wider appeal. ***

Review by Pete Whalley

Archive interview (30.03.11)

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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Power Plays w/c 11 November 2024

ARCANE MOON Hello Sun (indie)
S8NT ELEKTRIC XTC (Long Branch Records)
RIOGHAN Hands (Inverse Records)
ARCANA KINGS Here We Go (Curtain Call Records)
KLOGR face The Unknown (Zeta Factory)
BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

Featured Albums w/c 11 November 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)