I’ve been interviewing and reviewing for Filter for a few months, and have finally caught up with that content. Recently, I reviewed Love as Laughter’s Holy for the righteous mag, which is almost as cool as Love as Laughter. Almost I say, because the band’s Sam Jayne has an ear for addictive rock, and a friend in Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock. That rhymed.
Love as Laughter, Holy
Sam Jayne’s quirky throwback rock has found a kindred spirit in old friend Isaac Brock, the Modest Mouse architect who released this rewarding Love as Laughter dose from his own Glacial Place label. And label is the word, because there’s nothing glacial about Holy. From the jagged anthem “Paul Revere” to the hopscotch stomp of “All Parts of Me” and all the way to the heroic bounce of “Baby Shambles,” Jayne’s latest homage to the ’70s is a supercharged affair. Even its measured, winsome exercises like “Cleaning Man” and the title track stand out from the usual Neil Young comparisons, and not because of Jayne’s urgent vocals, which are becoming somewhat obsolete in the digital age. No, it’s simply because they pop harder, even as they lull you to back to the future with their nostalgia. Like Brock and even Andrew Bird, Sam Jayne can slipstream between genres without missing a heartbeat.