03.

The Blood Arm
Lie Lover Lie

What a revelation. I only bought this album in mid-November, not really knowing what it was. I was going to visit a friend, and she wanted us to go and see them live, so I thought I’d check them out beforehand (first via MySpace, and then soon after via HMV). I think, barring a few exceptions, I have listened to it more than once a day, every single day, since. Knocking both Tool and Amplifier down a place in less than a month is an astounding feat, but, if anything, this album is still growing in my estimation.

The Blood Arm are perhaps the most inappropriately named band I can think of. They sound like they should be some kind of death metal band, or failing that, an emo band with a fondness for self-mutilation. As it is, the Californian quartet are actually joyously uplifting indie pop. There are elements of bands like Franz Ferdinand or the Kaiser Chiefs in here, but there are also elements of something comparable to the Scissor Sisters (minus that band’s annoying aspects). Lie Lover Lie is a flawless example of how to make a pop album: simple and catchy but different to the usual. There is lots of emphasis on the keyboards here, which is one thing that separates The Blood Arm’s sound from that of their indie contemporaries. More notably, though, there is none of the pretension of bands like Franz, who, whilst great, clearly see themselves as pioneers (a ridiculous idea).

The Blood Arm know what they are and what they do, and they revel in it. Sing, dance, stomp and be happy! I could start listing the great tracks, but that would actually be all of them, so I won’t bother. This is a band that has the capacity to be more popular than air. Here’s hoping: they deserve it. Maybe a change of name, though….? It should help their cause that their camp simian-like singer has buckets of charm, and that their keyboardist is sex on legs (man, she is hot), but the songs should be enough on their own for world domination. I simply can’t think of an album of this kind that is this good.

‘I like all the girls, and all the girls like me!’