Left With Pictures – Beyond Our Means

Left With Pictures - Beyond Our Means

Left With Pictures‘ Beyond Our Means is an album of many things. Great songs sit next to forgettable songs, incredible musicianship sits next to overdone current pop clichés and the result is thankfully something very likeable.

The London based five piece have already released two EPs to near unanimous critical acclaim.

Between them the band play a whole range of instruments which create their multi-textured pop-folk sound. They have two lead singers, though they all join in on the harmonies. I’ve not got a huge amount of negative things to say about this album, but one problem I have is actually in some of the vocal performances.

Not only do they sing in the same subtly exaggerated cockney accent you hear everywhere at the moment, there are also parts where the harmonies just don’t work, leading to a slightly amateur sound. There is nothing wrong with the vocalists, they’re both great singers, but when everything around them is so polished and perfectly produced, they can’t afford to be a millimetre out of tune. When they are, it is very noticeable.

So if I can make my peace with the quirky, at times brilliant, at times not, vocal performances, how does the rest of the album sound?

Well luckily this is where the band breaks away from the vast number of London-based acts I could compare them to. Musically, they are flawless. They keep the music interesting enough with regular key changes and a wide-ranging timbre, but also keep it upbeat and as catchy as possible, to ensure it will grab the muso as well as the pop fan.

First track ‘Every Stitch, Every Line’ is an example of everything I’ve said above. A nice upbeat pop tune, but with added string parts it has a very romantic feel to it. It is also brilliantly crafted, jumping from major to minor with some skill. Lyrically, like the rest of the album, it is very poetic, keeping things a little more theatrical than melodramatic.

After that we have ’1,2,3…Go!’ which sounds very Brian Wilson like, and is also a hit in waiting.

A couple of the next few songs fall into the category of forgettable as I said at the start, that is until we get to the beautiful ‘Jubilee’. Again very Brian Wilson like, this is one of those rare songs by a young band that already sounds timeless. I can picture people listening to this song and thinking it’s a cover.

‘Yours, Tom Maclean’ is also a very lovely song. It plays as a sweet open letter to an old friend. “Of course I remember/You taught my F and C7/ And the chords to the chorus of sidewinder sleeps tonight” and stays just on the right side of sentimental. More than anything, it’s just really nice.

This is an extremely charming album. It isn’t different, and it isn’t flawless, but it is executed with a craft and a confidence that make it a joy. If you’re a fan of the British pop-folk scene, you can’t afford to not know this band.

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