The La's

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The La's

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The La's produced one great album. Lee Mavers, in his quest for perfection, went through band members like some people go through shoe--he wore them out and then replaced them. Only the bassist in the band was a consistent member besides Mavers.

That quest for musical perfection led to the firing of a number of producers (including John Leckie of XTC and Stone Roses fame). Finally, Steve Lilywhite (Peter Gabriel, Xtc, U2) came to the rescue. He, too, was fired before the album was completed. Despite the checkered production history, The La's is a terrific album brimming with melody, jangly guitar chord changes and top flight performances.

I would recommend the Japanese import version which has 8 bonus tracks (all previously unavailable on CD b sides with the exception of the single version of There She Goes). This is the completist version of the album. It has everything the band committed to vinyl and had released. A pity that Mavers isn't doing much as he showed tremendous promise with this, The La's debut.

Not really sure if I care that this is their only album or not. Like most, I bought it based on "There She Goes" back in 91-92. Still a wonderful blast of pop perfection, that one. Actually I have to say that "Timeless Melody" is my actual favorite. Closing out the trio of great songs is the wonderful "Looking Glass". Three wonderful songs. Hate to say it, but I pretty much hate the rest of the album across the board. (Bored may be more apt). Don't know what Mavers is up to knowadays. Not sure anyone does. The sorta offshoot Cast are alright, but the time I saw them live they were basically too high to play their songs.