LAVENDER DIAMOND - IMAGINE OUR LOVE (180g LP)

Up until now, 2007 had been looking a bit thin on the ground for totally ace new bands, but never fear - Lavender Diamond have arrived like a shaft of summer sunshine on the afternoon of a perfect festival to put that right, the musical equivalent of a picnic basket filled with never-ending strawberries, cream and pink champagne.

Like a crack team of interior decorators, L.A.’s Lavender Diamond rip out indie-rock’s drab, dorm-room stylings and guss it up with high-end flourishes. Their full-length debut has awesome feng shui: Instead of boring old guitar-bass-snare arrangements, low piano notes rumble, tom-toms roll, chamber strings shiver and acoustic guitars thrum percussively. Classically trained vocalist Becky Stark turns simple broken-heart laments into operettas: Her eerily perfect pitch and teetering high notes add splash and melodrama, even where none is called for.

Lavender Diamond Imagine Our Love Track Listing

1. Oh No 
2. Garden Rose 
3. Open Your Heart 
4. Side Of The Lord 
5. I'll Never Lie Again 
6. Dance Until Tomorrow 
7. Like An Arrow 
8. My Shadow Is A Monday 
9. Bring Me A Song 
10. Here Comes One 
11. Find A Way 
12. When You Wake For Certain