I could have sworn I reviewed the band’s last EP ‘Bretton’ but our reviews database tells me I didn’t. I remember listening to that record thinking the band were trying too hard to sound like Gallows and while, at times anyway, that kinda worked, the overriding feeling left me thinking everything was a bit forced. It just sounded like a band playing someone else‘s songs. It was good for what it was, but it just didn’t leap out at me. ‘Far Q’ sounds much more like a band comfortable in their own skin. You can tell they’ve gone away and refined everything. This record still sounds a little like Gallows when the band shout and scream, but the production is much better and the mix makes it sound ‘cleaner’. It brings out the melodic vocals and, I think anyway, improves the band’s sound no end.
There’s an energy here, just as The Ghost of a Thousand did, that will inevitably make the band stand out. The title track kicks things off brilliantly, while the double blast of ‘Taping Songs Off The Radio’ and ‘I’m Not Bulimic’ are catchy and chaotic in equal measure. Sure, there’s little here which will make you stand up and go ‘wow, this is new’, but I do think LTA are at least forging their own niche within a genre that’s heavily saturated and tired. Not quite breathing new life, but certainly this record will be lapped up by many if they give it a chance.