LaFaro - Easy Meat

QOTSA. FOTL. T?*

If you understand these acronyms, chances are you will take to LaFaro like a duck to water. If you don’t understand these acronyms, then chances are the band would make an excellent gateway band for you. On ‘Easy Meat’, LaFaro deal mainly in heavy, uptempo rock. They wear their influences quite openly on their sleeves and for the most part, don’t deviate from the formula that they as a band have created for themselves. Whether you consider this a good thing or not, all depends on your viewpoint and tastes.

An initially daunting-looking eighteen tracks quickly reveals itself to be about twelve in total, the rest made up of skits – which are easily the worst part of the album. God damn, they’re annoying, shitty and utterly, utterly pointless. With names like ‘Langer’ and ‘Scully’, you imagine they’re a private joke for friends back in their native Northern Ireland. The skits aren’t the only way in which the album is heavily influenced by Queens Of The Stone Age’s ‘Songs For The Deaf’: there are several tracks on here that almost lift directly from that album. ‘Sucking Diesel’’s intro suddenly morphs into ‘Do It Again’ from said album – though the unusually rapid fire, almost spoken word vocals give it an extra dimension. The prominent bass in the verse drives the song along whilst the contrast with the beefed up chorus works very well indeed. There is a slightly worrying element though, that one of the strongest tracks on the album is so heavily ‘inspired’ by a direct Queens track. Similarly, ‘Settle Petal’ begins with an identical intro to In ‘My Head’ from ‘Lullabies To Paralyze’. In fact, the whole song could slot quite easily on that album.

Which could and maybe should be perceived as a criticism. Except that – nothing is original these days. Everything is inspired by and taken from everything else. So to lambast LaFaro for exhibiting their influences so clearly is kind of missing the point. The real point is that, whilst listening to the album in one go tracks can meld into one another a bit too smoothly if you listen to each track individually they’re very well written, constructed and performed. If you like in-your-face up-tempo heavy rock, you will like LaFaro. So sure, it may all sound similar, sure the skits are awful, sure music lawyers may well have grounds to sue. But sod it. LaFaro, like Hawk Eyes, are a new brand of British rock band who have been far more heavily inspired by the American scene than their own homeland. The album is a good one, not a great one. It’s certainly worth investigating though.

*Queens Of The Stone Age, Future Of The Left, Therapy?