Okay. Lets just get it out of the way at the beginning. The Leafs have sold out. After their first album (yes not EP) with 8 songs clocking in at a whopping 13 minutes they’ve gone and ruined everything by writing songs that go for (gasp) 4 minutes 30 and 3 minutes 50. Hell even 2 minutes 59 is disrespectful. So it’s pretty clear that success has gone to this Melbourne duos heads, and we’re entering self-indulgent prog pop territory here.
Just when you’ve got this duo pegged they go and do this to you. Their second EP (yes I admit it’s an EP this time) is not as immediate as its predecessor, less silly, perhaps a little darker yet still beneath this darkness you still can’ help but detect a certain self depreciating humour lolling around. They live in that kind’ve mid 90′ lofi indie pop/rock world and their heroes seem to come from there, but really with a floor tom and a snare as well as a guitar with all the strings tuned to the same note, alongside there’ only so much you can do. This kind of limitation serves to make them focus upon the important things. The best song on here, The Error of Your Ways is soft and gentle and could be a Posies hold your lighter in the air and clutch your lover song, but they wisely choose to stop at 1 minute 25, so we don’ have to sit through all the getting to bits. There’ I Wanna Be A Machine which with it’s wailing vocals and jagged infectious pop sounds like a Pixies off cut, and of course live favourite Let’s Get Fucked Up in which the vocals sound like getting on a roller coaster after too much beer.
They recorded these five tracks in 7 hours one night with Cornel Wilczek (Qua) producing, mixing and mastering and whilst the vocals can sound raw and ready, it only adds to the angst and charm. Whilst Come Take My Hand is a little excessive at over two minutes more than their debut Space Elevator, the fact is that these guys are pop machines, everything they do is totally infectious, delivering rough hewn melodic pop gems without wasting one minute of your time. And for that they should be rewarded.
Bob Baker Fish
