Posted on: January 11, 2010 Posted by: John B. Moore Comments: 2

Wisconsin art rockers Laarks is just the type of band the trendy indie critics at Pitchfork drool over: a warble-y voiced lead singer, prominent use of synthesizers, and a strong affinity for Death Cab for Cutie songs. I don’t write for Pitchfork, so I can be honest and tell you there’s very little to get excited about over the band’s debut An Exaltation of Laarks.

The band is not bad, not a bit, but they are far from being original. Songs like “You Know They Do” and “Where Do You Wanna Live?” sound like they came off a Death Cab rarities album. The 10 songs that make up their record are, for the most part, a pretty solid collection of lilting indie pop.

It’s just too bad the Laarks sound more like a cover band executing them.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Top track: “You Know They Do”

Laarks – An Exaltation of Laarks/CD /10 tracks/2009/Absolutely Kosher/www.myspace.com/laarks

2 People reacted on this

  1. I don’t think this review is right at all. I’m not one who salivates over Pitchfork and blindly follows their reviews, quite the opposite actually, but whether Laarks are Pitchforks new indie darlings or not, I can say that Laarks have a definite unique sound that makes “An Exaltation of Laarks” an invigorating and interesting experience. I also feel that there is little, if any, prominent resemblance to Laarks and Death Cab. Just sayin’. The author of this review might not write for Pitchfork but he/she might as well, given the pretentious name-dropping, joyless review he/she wrote. Yet again, this is just my opinion.

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