Tweet

Album Details

• Artist: The High Llamas
• Album: Retrospective, Rarities & Instrumentals
• Label: V2
• Year of Release: 2003
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2003-07-23

Sean O'Hagan's High Llamas have been through a lot in their first 10 years. If you have missed out on the talents of Sean's band then Retrospective, Rarities & Instrumentals is a perfect way to get up to speed. The Retrospective part of it successfully pulls some of their best material from their career spanning albums. O'Hagan has often been compared to the brilliance of Brian Wilson except a little more modern in style and thinking. This is obvious in songs like "Nomads" and "The Goat Looks On" with aspect to the vocal harmonies. Think more of Wilson's latter contributions to the Beach Boys rather than their earlier material. For me, the instrumentals are almost too much. They remind me too much of chamber pop which I'm not a big fan of. There are plenty of fans that would appreciate where Sean is going with these but for those that think like me will be happy to know that they are mostly isolated on the second disc. Take the first disc as the actual retrospective disc and take or leave the second one as a throw away.

User Reviews and Comments

Log In or Register to Rate Albums