Max Shire - Love Lost Again

When you have an album whose singer howls about a fucked up kid, a burial ground and Jesus Christ before the end of the first track you know you're in for a long haul. Pass the absinthe, will you. The music is straightforward lo-fi angst-rock played with proficiency, but the vocals are sung with such earnestness and painful emphasis it’s difficult to pay attention to it. If you can ignore the overwrought lyricism, several of the tracks sit pretty well together; Dreamless, Starless, Imagine! (ahem) is a three minute hurricane of a guitar racket, and closer Born. Unborn. Born Again (see what I mean) is, well, a good, epic, closing track. There is music that’s good enough to distract from dodgy lyrics that cause wincing and flinching in the listener. Unfortunately, in Max Shire’s case, there is just not quite enough of it.