Tuesday , March 19 2024
Livingmore
Credit: Joseph P. Moore

Music Review: Livingmore – ‘Ok to Land’ Dishes Out Gorgeously Tight Alt Rock

Los Angeles-based Livingmore recently dropped their debut album, entitled Ok to Land. In the beginning, the band was a duo, but it quickly became a quartet composed of Alex Moore on vocals and guitar; Spencer Livingston on vocals and guitar; Mike Schadel on drums and keyboards; and Rodrigo Moreno on bass.

Stylistically, Livingmore blends alt rock and pop elements into a sound they describe as “a mixture of Blondie and The Everly Brothers.”

Ok to Land comprises 10 tracks. “Really Mean It” opens with resonant guitars, drums, and emerging synths flowing into an alt rock melody reminiscent of Blondie, but dreamier and more radiant. Layers of strumming guitars add layers of colorful harmonics streaming like filaments in a breeze. Moore’s sylph-like voice is rich and declarative, yet delicately elegant. “Cocoon” begins with a 1960s feel evolving to a sparkling alt pop melody twinkling with shiny energy and ebullient buoyancy. I love the gushing run of guitar hues.

“Wondering” meshes alt pop and country flavors into a smooth, stylish SoCal soft rock melody spilling enduring colors and bursts of lustrous sonority. Livingston and Moore’s voices are custom-made for each other, providing shimmering harmonies. “Strange Hopefuls” carries nuances of The Cranberries, riding a gleaming alt rock melody featuring Moore’s delicious voice, which assumes subtle washes of iridescent timbres. This may be my favorite song on the album because of Moore’s exotically flavored vocals.

“Egg Shells” rides a lightly crunching dreamy alt rock melody exuding both bright and dark colors, along with a retro feel. Moore’s marvelously pensive voice floats hauntingly over the music, like foam atop water. There’s an elusive easy intimacy suffusing the song that’s effective and contagious. “Walk Alone” alternates leitmotifs: one brilliantly sighing with gleaming pigments; the other darker and more intense. Moore’s scrumptious tones and the rhythm secure the song’s attraction.

“Never Slow Down” combines a Tom Petty feel with the gracious ambiance of The Everly Brothers, providing a luminous pop rock melody full of grand flair and enthusiasm. “Gone Too Fast” opens with a simple crunching beat and gorgeous vocal harmonies surfacing into shimmering waves of guitars. A dirty psychedelic guitar takes over, giving the tune a dynamic retro-kaleidoscopic energy.

“For the Hell of It” starts off with Moore’s wistful voice riding over a delicate guitar and then glides into an alt rock/pop melody traveling on gleaming guitars. A compact, twangy guitar imbues the melody with a luminous effluvium focused along a single sonic axis, giving the tune a driving, taut glow. The 10th and final song on the album, “Transition,” offers a reflective alt rock melody that is measured, longing, and melancholic. The rhythm is precise, almost dreamily majestic, as Moore’s waif-like voice drifts sublimely overhead.

Ok to Land, Livingmore’s debut album, delivers outstanding alt/pop rock. The melodies emanate infectious pigments as well as creamy smooth harmonics. Expansive rhythmic components, cool and minimal, provide muted muscularity. And Moore’s elegantly yummy voice infuses an aesthetic finish that is both polished and exquisitely delightful.

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About Randall Radic

Left Coast author and writer. Author of numerous true crime books written under the pen-name of John Lee Brook. Former music contributor at Huff Post.

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