Album Review : Sky Larkin - Kaleide
- Written by Paul Faller
Leeds-based three-piece Sky Larkin must be considered one of the best bands to come out of the city in recent years, and it's fair to say they've come a long way since the release of debut album The Golden Spike in February last year - and in many ways, Kaleide continues where The Golden Spike left off. Lead single 'Still Windmills' captures the same breezy, upbeat guitar-pop sound of their debut whilst the lyrics use potential energy as a metaphor for human potential, and the title track buzzes along infectiously. The fact these songs seem even tighter than those on their debut makes it feel like the band have upped their game a little, and that feeling is confirmed by the album's mid-section.
Based around only a single lyric, 'Anjelica Huston' makes great use of both singer Katie Harkin's voice and some lush instrumentation to brilliantly capture a cinematic feeling of overwhelming emotion. 'Spooktacular', on the other hand, is the rawest song the band has yet come up with, built around frantic, heavy guitar riffs that never let up until the song has finally barrelled to its conclusion. The album's biggest highlight, however, is 'Year Dot', a song that bounces along chirpily on a bed of synths despite Katie revealing that it's actually about dying alongside your friends during an apocalypse - the song's euphoric chant of "One pile of bones so they'll know we were friends" is macabre but oddly uplifting, particularly when the band draft in a bunch of friends from Seattle-based bands to up the volume.
It has to be said that Katie's vocals are one of the group's strongest points. Whether she's singing sweetly, as in the upliftingly hopeful 'Tiny Heist', letting herself go on 'Spooktacular', or adopting a more contemplative tone as on 'Coffee Drinker’ or 'ATM', her singing seems effortless and often beautiful. And while her lyrics can be oblique at times, she does come up with some striking lines - one of my favourites being from the aforementioned ATM: "We will always wonder/Whether a selfish heart is a truthful muscle/Or not." Credit must also go to her bandmates though - Doug's basslines often add a subtle weight to the group's songs, and Nestor is a skilled tubthumper of such exuberance that he once turned a cymbal inside-out while playing live.
If I'm going to nitpick for faults then I'd say I prefer the heavier version of 'Smarts' that the band released as a free download last year to the 'Shh Version' that closes out the album - although I must concede that the original wouldn't really work as an album closer, so I really am just nitpicking here. Overall though, Kaleide is a strong second album and a worthy follow-up to The Golden Spike. "I know there's potential," sings Katie on 'Still Windows' - and by the time you reach the end of Kaleide, you get the sense that Sky Larkin's potential has indeed been realised.