This album is late news but still seems a necessary thing to say to the two people who read this blog. Everyone knows at least one song by The La's and that song is the mid 90's hit "There She Goes". A brilliant little "one hit wonder" grade pop song that I didn't really pay attention to when it was out (though I did love it.) Later on I had read that someone like Noel Gallagher had called The La's the greatest british pop band ever made. Oasis doesn't know many things, but they do know their way around a pop song so I figured I'd give the La's a shot. I went out to my local music store and found a used copy of The La's self titled (and to that point, only) album (I believe it was at the now defunct Record and Tape Exchange in College Park.) I popped the album into my stereo and was... underwhelmed. Only two songs really stood out to me: "Timeless Melody" and "There She Goes". Nothing else really hit me as a "Nuggets-style" brilliant pop single. Every few months I'd pop the album in again, trying to find that elusive brilliance that people claimed it had, but it was just kind of weak sounding.
Fast forward about a year and I read in what I'll assume was Mojo (I think they'd be the only magazine concerned with The La's) about the history of The La's and how the album they put out did not make them happy one bit. Recorded by Steve Lillywhite (producer of early U2 and... the Dave Matthews Band), they claimed they were never happy with the sound of the album. It was weak. They were right... it WAS weak. Still, too bad.
Later I had read about the release of this BBC session album. Perhaps the La's would produce better results live in a studio. And true that, they did.
This album is one of the best collections of pop songs I've heard in a while. It's almost the same songs, but they are played in a more urgent and muscular fashion that you only get from great live bands. The only thing preventing it from feeling like a solid "album" is that certain songs are repeated as they were recorded by slightly different lineups in different sessions from different years. It's interesting to hear the difference, but the real star here is the songs and the nearly flawless performances of them. If you like pop, harmonies, energetic 60's style rock n roll... this one should be a no brainer. Even if you didn't like There She Goes...
Grade: A
