Larrikin Love - The Freedom Spark

Ever feel like you've just been cheated?

Album Review by Billy Hamilton | 13 Oct 2006
Album title: The Freedom Spark
Artist: Larrikin Love
Label: Infectious
It's the manifesto of schools across the land: plagiarism gets you nowhere. Yeah, you might breeze through your coursework, but when it comes to the nitty-gritty of exams there's no escaping your fraudulent ways. So, where were Larrikin Love when this moralistic proclamation was being delivered? Well, if debut album 'The Freedom Spark' is anything to go by, they were petulantly fleecing from the likes of Morrissey, Strummer and Doherty. There's nothing particularly wrong with this record; in-fact the rickety shoestring sound of On Sussex Downs displays an intrinsic sense of melody. But the likes of Six Queens and Downing St. Kindling don't just imitate the past, they spuriously regurgitate it. And that's what irks – this London quartet has all the ability but lacks any originality. As 'On A Burning Coast' comes to a (Baby)shambolic end, there's just one question that springs to mind: Ever feel like you've just been cheated? [Billy Hamilton]

The Freedom Spark' is out on September 25. http://www.larrikinlove.com