Lullabye Arkestra sunk their talons into me pretty quickly. The album starts with slow, mournful strings and horns that build into a dramatic climax in which the floor suddenly drops out, replaced by the band in full-on assault mode. Before the song even finished, I had to go back and listen to that amazing opening again.
After the soaring bombast of the first track, I wasn’t ready for the rootsy direction the album takes. The band continues with the distorted bass and melancholy horns, but instead of a pummeling charge, they flirt with blues and early rock 'n roll. The emphatic wailing vocals often steal the spotlight while a church organ toils in the background.
Although at first I was disappointed that they took this route after the superb opener, the band’s enthusiasm eventually won me over. Even the slower, minimal "Come Out, Come Out" is a nice shelter from the storms that both precede and follow it. "Nation of Two" finds the group returning to the heaviness of the opener with a blistering, if straightforward, distorted anthem. They slow it down even as they keep the heavy aesthetic on "Bulldozer of Love," this time bringing their horns back to add discordant squalls and squeaks on the song’s periphery. Their final statement is another burner, starting with slow feedback before the band hits together. An ode to rock and roll, it nicely summarizes their varied approach on the rest of the album, alternating between distorted bass and catchy horns and choruses.
Even as my opinion fluctuated somewhat during the early section, Ampgrave won me over on the whole. It’s a fantastic, invigorating album whose only fault is that it’s over far too soon.
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