Lake Street Dive: Lake Street Dive

If you pick up Lake Street Dive’s third and eponymously-titled album, and run through the first three songs on the back of the CD case, you might be inclined to think that they’re little more than a parody of the Beatles. There’s “Hello? Goodbye!” as the first offering, followed by “Don’t Make Me Hold Your Hand”. The third song is titled “Henriette”, which may have visions of “Michelle” dancing in your head, though the former has nothing to do with the French. The Beatles allusions don’t stop there. The band was a winner of the 2006 John Lennon Songwriting Competition, and when you finally put the CD into your player, the chorus to “Hello? Goodbye!” is an obvious nick from and inversion of the Fab Four’s similarly titled tune with “When I say hello, you say goodbye.” You might be forgiven, based on this evidence, that the band is a novelty act, offering something along the lines of Utopia’s Deface the Music, which was an entire album written in the style of the Liverpool lads, or the Rutles. Happily, this is not the case. Lake Street Dive offer up a sincere blend of soulful jazz-rock with cabaret touches and a dash of bubblegum, folk, country and psychedelica. What’s more, Lake Street Dive is an astonishingly strong record, one that at times recalls the work of mid-period Chicago or Steely Dan or any variety of ’70s AM-radio gold staples. It is a must-have for anyone who is a fan of recorded sound as Lake Street Dive are not pretenders, they’re real contenders.

Part of the charm is hearing the work of Rachael Price, whose lush vocal style is equally a cross between the triumvirate of soulful Joneses – that’d be Rickie Lee Jones, Sharon Jones and Norah Jones. She careens and swoons through Lake Street Dive’s 13 tracks (plus a bonus hidden goodie), like an eagle taking flight across a landscape of snow-capped mountains. Price is known as a solo artist, too, and is lauded enough to have her own Wikipedia page, which is unique for an artist who can be described at this point in her career as regional. She’s won a bevy of awards, and is noted for being the daughter of choral musician Tom Price. Of the lineage, the apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree. Price is an instrument in and of herself, which is not to discredit the other members of this musically tight group (which include Mike Olson on trumpet and guitar, and Michael Calabrese on the skins). Still, she is simply a revelation to hear. Anyone with an interest in hearing a real up-and-coming young talent can do no wrong than examining her work with this band, which originated out of Boston.

The other players on this disc are equally as astonishing to listen to, as well. The opening, bossa nova-influenced “Hello? Goodbye!” features a lilting trumpet solo that is breathtaking to behold and a false ending to keep you on your toes. The follow-up track, “Don’t Make Me Hold Your Hand” is a knock-out, probably the record’s stand-out track and the longest, clocking in at just more than six minutes – a slow, simmering ballad that has an infectious groove to it. The album’s most obvert Beatles moment comes with “Henriette”, which is an amalgam of the riff from “Paperback Writer” with the chorus from “Drive My Car”. It also features astounding and very idiosyncratic stand-up bass fretwork in the form of a rather unexpected solo from band member Bridget Kearney. There are a bevy of other highlights as well. “My Heart in Its Right Place” is a concoction of smooth jazz that wouldn’t be out of place in the repertoire of Carole King. “Got Me Fooled” is a delectable slice of jangle-pop and ‘60s garage rock. “Elijah” is a pseudo-twee pop tune that is expertly crafted into an almost gospel rave-up. And on it goes. There’s not a single duff track to be found between the bookends of “Hello? Goodbye!” and “My Speed”. What’s more, the variety of styles blend in well together, and you’ll never get the impression that this is just a scattered assortment of differences chopped up. There is a real cohesion to this album, a sense of the familiar that sounds distinctly unfamiliar at the same time. Lake Street Dive can be uniquely identified by a fingerprint they can call their own.

Thematically, Lake Street Dive is an album of bruised relationships and the travails of being alone, but not without a sense of humour. “Neighbor Song”, which is also reprised as the bonus track in a more clinical version backed by haunting keyboards as opposed to the straight-up lite jazz version on the album proper, is actually about hearing the couple in the apartment upstairs going at it, and just trying to get some shut-eye for “the love they make is keeping me awake”, which is a rich metaphor for longing, for wanting to be in their shoes. Elsewhere, “Elijah” offers a great opening line which paints an incredible portrait of being absolutely smitten with someone, “Elijah has his brains on the legs of his jeans by his hip”, which later leads our protagonist to “lay in psychosis one bright sunny day”. With this third album, Lake Street Drive prove that they’re an incredibly vibrant quartet of wordsmiths, never falling into cliché, offering rich views into the tormented psyches of lovers and the lonely.

In a fair world, this record would be hailed as an instant classic, one that will influence a bevy of musicians. That might not be its fate, considering that the group is on a tiny label and has a unique sound that rubs against all that this popular in music these days. However, anyone who loves pure, sweet and unbridled music should definitely check Lake Street Dive out — and I get the feeling that they might just be an incendiary band to see in a blues or jazz club somewhere, just on the basis of their recorded output here. All in all, Lake Street Dive is a staggering, monumental disc, one that had me almost immediately listen to it twice in a row. There is real power, real magic on display here — a chemistry between the interplay of band members and an appreciation for a blend of genres that congeals here into something that can be pinpointed to past influences, yet remains one of a kind. They may not be the Beatles, but they don’t have to be. Lake Street Dive is a gorgeous, tasteful, close-knit band of musicians, and the sounds that they purvey are something celebratory to behold.