The missing link between Goldie and Kristin Hersh?

GREAT to see Lamb achieve mass exposure when their excellent "Gorecki" was used in a recent TV advert for... well, who cares what the ad was for? Nothing on this album, however, quite hits those magisterial heights.

Prudently, Andy Barlow and Lou Rhodes have moved on from their drum'n'bass beginnings, now that drum'n'bass is only used as music for gardening programmes hoping to funkify their image. Taking its place is the more complex, fist-hammering frenzy of "B-Line", the samplefire of "Angel" or the pummelling savagery of "Little Things".

At odds with all of this, however, are the often tritely life-affirming lyrics. More than once, Lou Rhodes reiterates her favourite theme of how much in love she is and how she wishes to stay as such, as on "Here". She's also prone to preachy sentiments. "Little Things" is about how, goshdarnit, we're so busy rushing about we never enjoy the little things in life, like rainbows.

Such gooey guff make the scabrous vocal they're rendered in sound grating rather than harrowing. Fortunately, there's enough musically going on to withstand these aberrations.

rated:  * * * (out of 5)

---

review:  David Stubbs

nicked from 'Uncut', dated June 1999

---