TRACK REVIEW: The Lathums - I See Your Ghost

TRACK REVIEW:

 

 

The Lathums

I See Your Ghost

 

9.5/10

 

The Ghosts EP is available to pre-order via:

https://music.apple.com/gb/album/1531730786?app=itunes&cId=WE&i=1531731090&ign-itscg=30440&ign-itsct=catchall_p4&ign-mpt=uo%3D4&lId=1866634&sr=1&src=Linkfire

RELEASE DATE:

30th October, 2020

GENRES:

Alternative/Indie

ORIGIN:

Wigan, U.K.

LABEL:

Island Records

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IT has been a while since I have…

included a new band in this feature. I think the music scene is still being dominated by solo artists and, whilst there are some good bands around, the majority of the great artists out there are solo. That said, one could not have missed the rise and rise of The Lathums. It gives me a chance, not only to investigate a promising group, but to take my focus away from London – so often the obvious go-to when it comes to music. The Lathums hail from Wigan and, whilst many of us associate the North with bands such as The Stone Roses, and The Beatles, I think many are unaware of the terrific bands that exist in every corner of the North. Whilst Wigan might not be as packed with legendary and new bands as, say, Liverpool or Manchester, it is the home to one of the U.K.’s most encouraging groups! Before moving onto a topic that I am keen to explore, I will grab from a CLASH article which introduces the lads:

“Humble but confident, the Wigan four-piece made up of frontman/singer Alex Moore, Scott Concepcion on guitar, bassist Johnny Cunliffe and drummer Ryan Durrans make sublime, jangly guitar-laden songs soaked in melodic textures. Not only resembling The Smiths, they connect with sonics of The Beatles, The Coral, The Stone Roses and The Housemartins. The Lathums are a close unit where everything’s natural and feels right.

Although some lyrics derive from sadness, there’s a wider palette of emotion displayed and optimistic sentiments occur with frequency. A dedicated writer Moore has a rare gift for capturing life’s essence with humour, charm and precision, offering nuanced perspectives that allow for exploration and gritty portrayals. There’s a belief that lyrics exist to explore themes of local, national and international interest, hence subjects like the French Resistance, digital culture and materialistic age are tackled with intelligence and imagination”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sam Crowston

I think Wigan is important for a number of reasons. Not only does it put a different part of the North on the map, but it seems that the fans and locals there are among the most supportive. At this very hard time for every artist, I think getting as much backing and loyalty as possible is vital; it seems that the Lathums have a tremendous backing from their home crowd! It is not the only reason why they are so popular and talked-about, but I think it might have been harder if they were from London. Perhaps it might have taken them a bit longer to get that buzz but, as there is such a passionate and dedicated following there, it was only a matter of time before The Lathums began to accrue that sort of acclaim and reputation. In an article from Get Into This, Alex Moore nodded to the hometown masses:

“Moore states that the support in their home town has been important for the young four-piece.

“It helps to have that backing,” he says. “Obviously Oasis had Manchester and The Beatles had Liverpool getting behind them so this is our equivalent.

I don’t want to use the word gang to describe it , it’s more like a scene. Everyone has been really supportive, the people who are associated just help us anyway they can”.

Although this review is going to be shorter than the usual ones I put out – as The Lathums have conducted fewer interviews than most acts I assess -, I think I can go into quite a bit of depth and explore them from a number of different angles. Indeed, the band have found themselves on this rise of attention and popularity. I am not suggested that it has been an overnight success – as every band works their work gradually to prominence -, but The Lathums have resonated very quickly and are signed to Island Records.

That legendary imprint, through the years, has signed everyone from Any Winehouse to Nicki Minaj, and it is testament to the quality and appeal of The Lathums that they have found themselves signed to one of the best labels around. That does not mean that their future is assured, and they will be pampered. Island Records will provide the band with a platform and guidance, but the guys are still going to have to put in the hard graft – which they know already. It is a major accomplishment to be signed to such a big label so soon, and one would expect quite a few albums to come from them in the future. I want to grab a few different bits from that CLASH feature/interview I just sourced from, as Moore talks more about the local support; but we learn just how busy the band have been since their formation – and a particularly prominent and popular musician who saw a spark in them:

“Moore sees their nurtured community as key to who they are as people and musicians. “Community is a good word for it”, he reflects. “Back then our reputation was built around word of mouth. It’s passed from friend to friend, so it’s like a close knit family thing. It’s not really like fans, it’s all part of the movement and part of the team.”

Two Eps are out already; one’s self-titled from last year, ‘Fight On’ was released earlier this year. 3rd July represents a milestone as ‘All My Life’ comes out, it’s the first song Moore ever wrote. He was just sixteen at the time and about to leave school, and it shows the songwriter at his purest. Produced by James Skelly, recorded at Liverpool’s Parr Street Studios, it’s their first release on Island Records. The band recently signed key documents with the label.

The band themselves might not have expected people to be so receptive so soon, and Moore sort of found music as this useful outlet where he could funnel his emotions through; there is sort of this comfort in picking up a guitar and playing. The reaction that he was afforded by those he played his earliest material to was immediate – in the sense that people were stunned and there was this wonderful response.  The impression the band made when performing their songs live also helped get them recognised:

“I wanted to pour my emotions through the guitar, and I found some solace, almost”, he says. “It was borne out of desperation, I think. I had a lot of bad times going on when I was younger, so that was my escape. I was just doing it for myself.”

“I showed the song to people, and everybody seemed quite stunned at first”, he adds. “Everybody said they didn’t expect me to be able to sing. I don’t look like the sort of person who can sing, apparently. It was all my emotions from being young, all these experiences just spoke through the song.”

Live gigs make up parts of The Lathums’ rise and simmering success. Having delivered their own UK tour of packed, in-demand shows playing to full crowds, they stopped at iconic venues like Glasgow’s King Tuts. They also played alongside Blossoms on tour and will re-join the Stockport band for some European dates in February. A gig sharing the stage with Paul Weller is on the cards. Studio sessions to work on songs for a debut album are being arranged”.

I have been looking back at The Lathums’ earliest recordings, and they started so young! Having success and recognition when you are in your teens can be quite daunting, and I think there is this sense of expectation – from the public and artists – to improve and use that as a benchmark, which can be quite daunting and damaging. The fresh-faced band have seen music they produced and started at school end up in the charts. In an interview with Music Week, Alex Moore reflected on the chart success, and he seemed almost unaware of the significance of such acclaim:

“All aged just 20, singer Alex Moore, guitarist Scott Concepcion, bassist Johnny Cunliffe and drummer Ryan Durrans must be responsible for one of the few ‘school’ projects to end up in the Top 20, which is where The Memories We Make – a collation of their first two EPs – landed earlier this month, reaching No.14 in the UK album charts.

“It’s quite weird really, I’m not up to scratch with charts but obviously it’s a big thing isn’t it?” asks Moore down the line from Liverpool’s Parr Street Studios where he’s working on the band’s debut album with producers Chris Taylor and James Skelly (the latter also frontman of The Coral). Moore says the Wigan-born band have managed to take their rapid success in their stride, insisting the four-piece are “just normal people doing what we love”. Yet, with offers for collaborations already piling up, Moore admits he’s eager for more. “I feel quite excited by it, the fact that we can impact so many different people from different places, it’s quite a humbling feeling,” he notes”.

I want to stick on the subject of popularity and instant success, not to blow smoke up the band’s bottoms, but to underline how their music has been taken to heart, in a way we have not seen with many acts of the past decade. Maybe it is the commitment and loyalty one finds in the North, or maybe it is the effect their music has on a wide range of people. Whatever the reason, there has been this wave of affection and support for The Lathums. I am eager to review their latest track, I See Your Ghost, but I wanted to spend a bit more time on how they have been received by the public. When speaking with NME this year, the band were asked about their success and rise – and Alex Moore reacted to their tour selling out so quickly:

“Your latest tour sold out in five minutes and things are picking up nationwide. What’s happened there, then?

Alex: “It’s crazy really, it’s all word of mouth how this has happened. We put a few tunes out and got a bit of a local following. Then with Twitter and social media everybody got onto it and we’ve just built up from there and it’s not stopped. I think people are just ready for some proper music again. Not to be arrogant but everybody wants to hear good music and for a long time there’s not really been that [guitar] band you can get behind and really get involved with.”

“The gigs have been mental too. Sometimes I don’t even have to sing. We played a gig at King Tuts and literally from stepping out to going off stage, everybody was singing every word to our songs. It was madness”.

It is a shame that the band cannot play much this year (though there are dates booked for next year), and they might have to wait until next year before they can really hit the road and get the music out there. They will be frustrated, as they have captured an energy and sense of acclaim that has fed right into their music. Not that the train has come to a stop, but the band will be desperate to get back on the stage and take their music to new places. Their Ghosts EP is released later this month – just in time for Hallowe’en! -, but they were asked by NME about their previous E.P., and what it was like having such an esteemed and well-known musician producing (Alex Moore and Scott Concepcion reacted):

“Another indie legend, The Coral’s James Skelly came on board to produce your last EP. How have you found working with him?

Alex: “It felt like being on work experience really for musicians. It’s kind of like learning your trade. He’s dead good with us James as well because he’s kind of been there and done it. He’s already had this journey. He always says if ‘you need any guidance or advice or anything just give me a text’ and that gave us a lot of confidence. He knows that we’re screwed on and very on to the music. When we go in the studio, we know what songs we’ve got and how we’re gonna portray them and get them across and James soaks up that information.

Scott: “Sometimes he tells us to tone it down a little bit because we go overboard sometimes. He just adds a bit of class”.

Before coming to The Lathums’ latest song, I picked up on something from the Music Week feature regarding Alex Moore’s upbringing and the music he was exposed to. I have spoken about the band’s rise and spreading popularity, but I have not really addressed musical influences. It seems that The Beatles’ music is not only important to The Lathums but, as Alex Moore discussed, perhaps their messages of positivity rubbed off on them in terms of what they project:

“The singer grew up surrounded by music, recalling vivid memories of his mother singing Motown around the house, which encouraged him to sing when he was “dead young”. The Lathums’ collective influence though is that fab perennial The Beatles. “I got into them from Scott. He has these musical fads where he just becomes completely obsessed by someone,” explains Moore. “I already knew The Beatles obviously, but he broadened my mind to them and I delved in a bit more.”?

For the singer, his band’s main purpose now is to spread positivity in the world through his lyrics, and The Beatles are the reason behind that goal. “They made really positive differences in society, they gave people a different perception of things, and they united people who would’ve otherwise never even spoken to each other. I want to make positive differences too,” he declares. While he doesn’t see himself as a political artist, Moore has sung about everything from the French Revolution to Generation Z and is sure the band’s new songs will “ruffle a few feathers”.

One of the tricky tasks I was faced when reviewing I See Your Ghost is that, from what I can see (or not), the lyrics have not been published anywhere – this always allows me the chance to dissect them and not mishear lines. In this case, I am having to try and pick up as many lines and words as I can from the recording and, whilst this is easy enough for most tracks, there is a quickness and restlessness to the song which makes it quite difficult! That is okay, as the song’s title sort of gives you an indication as to the crux and theme. The idea seems to concern ghosts, obviously, and the enduring presence of the departed. This song is a bit of a change in pace for The Lathums, as they have put in some Ska and Reggae touches. There is a definite groove that one would associate with the genres, and the words are delivered with plenty of speed and turns. So many bands can get hooked on a sound or think that, when they get noted, that they need to stay with that sound and do not move forward. The Lathums are a curious and evolving band, and it is great to hear them in this mode. The song starts with some deep and exciting bass; a real rumbling that makes you wonder and allows images to form in the mind. A guitar line hooks in and provides a speed and lightness that contrasts nicely with the bass. At just over two-and-a-half minutes, the boys deliver a song as economically as The Beatles would back in the day and they manage to pack in so much! I like Moore’s vocals, as he delivers the first line in one manner, and then his voice speeds up.

I have not heard a song that goes through so many shifts so early! From that introduction, which is quite brooding and deep, the song brightens and accelerates. As I say, the lyrics can be quite hard to decipher, as Moore delivers them pretty rapidly! There are songs that are almost designed to be performed live and get the crowd jumping – and this is one such song! It seems like the hero is talking about something being “worth their weight in bones”, and we/she must listen to him carefully as he could save you “ever so much time”. In terms of lyrical inspiration, the band have not really explained the song, so it is down to the listener to come to their own conclusions. To me, the song is less about the paranormal and literally seeing a ghost – even though ghosts aren’t real, so you can’t ‘literally’ see one -, but of a spirit that has died; in the sense that there was a relationship that has now died. That would seem to make more sense to me but, of course, there is that chance that the band are referring to ghoulish spirits. With elements of The Coral in the song’s sound and a slightly skeletal/ghost ship sound – that was prevalent on The Coral’s debut album -, it is pleasing to hear The Lathums sound slightly off-kilter. Talking about (I think) “cities of snow”, one gets flashes of images and scenes, as the song races through the mind. I just mentioned The Coral and, perhaps as a nod to mentor/producer James Skelly, the chorus evokes their sound.

At night, the hero sees her ghost – if, indeed, it is about a lost lover -, and the chorused vocals are extremely evocative and pleasing! The band never let their foot off the accelerator throughout the song. The chorus is brief-yet-pleasing, and then we are back with the rapid and delirious verse. This time, our hero asks the heroine/spirit if there is anything they want to ask him; they seem very funny to him and, as the next part of that thought sort of gets buried because it is a very fast delivery, I think that actually adds some weight. If all the lyrics were out there and we could have them to hand, I think that might take something away from the song. Instead, there are these slightly gaps; almost like we are getting fragments of the story and, ghost-like, we never get the full body and essence. The band are incredibly tight throughout and each player adds so much to the brew. Even though this someone is gone, they “feel so close”, and one can hear the sense of loss in Moore’s voice. Again, I will stick with my theory of escaping love, and an important person that has slipped through his fingers. At the half-way marker, Johnny Cunliffe’s bass comes back in, and we get another ghoulish, twilight rumbling. From the sway and wave of energy that came before, there is this chance to breathe. The song rumbles and rises; there are wordless vocals that have a spectral feel, as the composition builds and builds. There is a fiery riff – props to Scott Concepcion -, and Ryan Durrans’ drums gallop and pound. Our hero, towards the end, says that this person is too close and that nobody knows. There is plenty of intrigue and mystery in those thoughts, and it gives me plenty to ponder. With only a few seconds to go, there is another twist in the tail, and that sped-up and rapid-fire vocal comes back in to end the song. I have listened to I See Your Ghost over and over, and it is one of those songs you can listen to without getting bored! Not only because it is so short, but the band pack so much in! As I said earlier, they could have stuck with the sound of previous tracks or repeated themselves, but they have produced a new-sounding cut that splices Reggae, something akin to a Coral-esque sea shanty, together with Ska elements. It is a refreshing blast from the young band, and they demonstrate such economy and talent in a single song. I look forward to the arrival of the Ghosts EP if this is the standard they have set!

I shall wrap up soon, but I want to end with a little look to their future. If you can pre-order the Ghosts EP, I would recommend that, as it is going to be a tremendous release. The Lathums have had a busy and exciting past year and, like so many, it has sort of ground to a halt. At a time when they would have wanted to attack and play as much as possible, they have been stifled and held back. I can only imagine how frustrating it is for them. NME asked them how they felt about the current situation:

“The pandemic has had a devastating impact on the live circuit this year. How have you coped with it?

Scott: “At first it was like a crushing blow because we had loads of gigs lined up but after we’d got over the initial bitterness of it all, we just realised that we could just go in the studio after lockdown had been lifted and record the tunes that we had. So silver linings.”

Alex: “Everyone is in the same position though aren’t they? We were very lucky because we had just signed our record deal and we could just sit in our rooms and write songs for weeks and weeks. There was a good momentum going for us before COVID but I don’t think it’s stopped to be honest. Everyone is just more raring to go. Obviously it’s a really horrible time for everybody but I feel like it’s put things into perspective, what we take for granted, even just going to a gig. I think it’ll make people realise when we come back, what’s actually important”.

I guess the band have plenty of time to perform and strike, and they have a great record deal under their belt. I know that they will be alright and continue to recruit fans, but it is unfortunate that their momentum has been slowed slightly at a pivotal time. If you are not following them at the moment, get onto social media and keep abreast of the Wigan band’s movements. There will be a lot of talk regarding a debut album and when we might be able to see that in the world. I am sure The Lathums have a plan for that and, as they have an E.P. to promote and will want to be able to perform a lot of the album live, it will happen…

PHOTO CREDIT: John Latham/@MRJOHNLATHAM

IN good time.

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Sam Liddicott