Following a summer supporting Noel Gallagher, Exeter based five-piece The Loft Club bring us their debut album ‘Dreaming The Impossible‘. The record is a sunny mix of jangly guitars and psychedelic twists exploring the well-trodden thematic paths of love, loss, and friendship. Dripping with retro influences, this is an album which is proud to look back and celebrate what has gone before. ‘Dreaming The Impossible‘ is a well-produced album. The guitars sound nice and big, and there is enough interesting sonic stuff going on to stop it being too dull. In terms of creative offering, though, it falls somewhat short.
It’s always an unpleasant task for a critic to write a negative review, as creating an album of any kind is a terrific achievement, and certainly harder than sitting behind a keyboard pointing out problems. And yet, one must question the purpose of an album such as this. It’s well made and musically accomplished, yes, but so heavily influenced by Britpop and middle of the road indie rock that it fails to find its own voice. Every track has a guitar sound, or a drum fill, or an anthemic chorus, that makes you go ‘Hey, that sounds just like…’. This is Oasis meets the Las meets The Coral, with a few interesting injections of 60s psychedelia. That’s a great jumping off point, but you have to move forward. Unfortunately, ‘Dreaming The Impossible‘ revels in these influences a little too much. Of course, how much of a problem this is depends very much on your own musical tastes. If you’re a die-hard fan of British guitar music, this may very well be right up your street. However, die-hard fans of British guitar music probably still have all their Britpop records from the first time around.
The Loft Club’s debut has many positives; well-constructed songs, great production, sing-along choruses – it does a lot of things very well, and those big sounds seem like they would translate brilliantly to a live performance. The Loft Club would definitely be worth catching live, but unless you are a Britpop obsessive it’s probably an album you can miss without feeling too bereft.
