LaSalle - Expedition Songs

  by Adam Wood

published: 22 / 12 / 2005

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Review

Michigan based trio LaSalle were formed from the ashes of aggro rockers Small Brown Bike, taking the aggressive power of the former and adding a slightly more pop sense of song construction, in order to create a rather watery form of emo-angst. Despite some charming call-response vocals from husband and wife Mike and Katy Reed, this 10 track debut lacks spark and imagination, being more akin to East coast almost rans StellaStarr than the Pixies that they so wish to ape. Saying that, some of the tracks on Expedition Songs have not gone out to die alone in the tundra. ‘Flip Flops and White Suits’ makes great a combination of edgy riffing with exquisite pop breaks and chunky bass lines. ‘Other Side of Night’ similarly is a slow burning epic of Mogwai-like grandeur. With pedestrian production work from Dave Feeney, this album is another that will join a long stable of dreary American emotional rock and roll. It is an essential for fans of their previous work to wean themselves off teenage anger/angst, much like the latter day incarnation of the Get Up Kids, going from punky kids to AOR because now they have mortgages and Hire/Purchase dining room sets. Nevertheless, LaSalle have some finer points to exploit, though for now they may have to return that new SUV.

Track Listing:-

1 A Prescription for His Social Life
2 Oasis in the Sun
3 Move, Stop, Repeat
4 Flip Flops & White Suits
5 Hurt for Long
6 Other Side of Night
7 Little Kicks
8 Vanishing Point
9 Kissinger
10 The Ancient Mariner of 1989
11 Don't Call