Album Review: Lion Cub - Seneca

I’m going to let you in a secret here, don’t trust reviewers. I’m serious. We are not trustworthy at all. We get sent a record and are expected to be able to absorb every nuance and subtly of it and churn out an indepth evaluation and tell everyone whether we think it’s bad or not. We swan in with our opinions, our praise or our criticism, and expect you all to believe us when we’ve only probably listened to the record 5 or 6 times. Suffice to say we know a lot less than we make out.

Lion Cub is a case in point. This is a huge record, nearly 45 mins in length and packed with slow burning punky indie-folk. The songs swell slowly and build over lush layers of guitars, keyboards and percussion, the vocals are warm and charming and the likes of The Weakerthans and Ted Leo and The Pharmicists are bands I would mentioned when trying to describe this to someone. However I’ve listened to this record many times over the course of a week and I couldn’t hum you any of the tunes.

This is in no way Lion Cubs fault. These songs have been meticulously put together and it shows. Lyrically they’re fantastic and the production is pitched perfectly. All of these factors should have me positively salivating over this record but I’m not. I haven’t had time too. This is record that you need to listen to on a long drive by yourself, it needs to soundtrack a summer, it needs to be absorbed subconsciously.

Despite this somewhat confused review I do urge you to check this record out if you’re a Weakthans fan or if the likes of My First Tooth or Chuck Ragan float your boat. This record is remarkable in that, while there may not be something for everyone, there is still something for a hell of a lot of people. You just have to take the time to find it.

3/5

'Seneca' by Lion Cub is available now through Topshelf Records.

Lion Cub on MySpace and Wordpress.

Barney Dufton