Do they make you want to shout?
A quite luxurious backing, even on the B-side, is the main calling card on ‘Feet To The Sky’ from Lulu & The Lampshades. Coming from Glasgow, its hard for this writer to see the name Lulu and not immediately think of a screaming harlot going “weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllllllll....” but thankfully the vocals on offer here are far more understated and less tortuous than anything that wee Dennistoun hing-out ever produced.
No, we kid, Lulu had some half-decent stuff in the late 60s, early 70s. Anyways, back to the review, Lulu & The Lampshades.
Vocally, the song was good although surprising, the London twang similar to Lily Allen is quite noticeable but works really well over the varied backing. It takes a few repeated listens before the chorus and melodies start to pull together but if you are to give it the opportunity, it is well worth it. The change in tempo after the one minute mark is delightful and could be played on repeat for a large amount of times. That would probably ruin it but if you at least let it run to the xylophone style solo that follows it; you should be able to keep it interesting enough to withstand a lot of listening.
The problem is the fact that there appears to be a lot of female vocalists clamouring for attention at the moment and it appears that the public tolerance for them is reaching breaking point. It can only be hoped that L&TL’s talent is what gets peoples attention as opposed to the forced kookiness of an act like Paloma Faith, who to be fair, has pluggers and promoters who are doing a grand job for her.
This band are on their debut single so aren’t going to be on the level of every TV quiz show available but with a couple of tracks as interesting as this, its well worth checking them out.