LIFE – North East Coastal Town review

There are countless hard luck stories about artists who lost momentum due to the pandemic – although no-one is making light of any sacrifice – and Hull based quartet LIFE can certainly lay claim to one just as maddening as the rest. Having spent much of 2019 touring the scuzzed-up indie punk of their second album A Picture of Good Health it looked like hard work was about to bring just rewards, only for circumstances to dictate an unwelcome stretch of career on hold.

For many of us regardless of the circumstances lockdowns and self-isolation meant confronting the realities of home wherever that led, be it people, places, memories or something else. For Mez Green and co. home meant their city and the tangled web of relationships that lie within it’s boundaries, physical or otherwise. This sparked an idea; that the group’s next album would be a love letter to it, ‘An ode to kinship…with its musical and lyrical spine picking out themes of love, desire, beauty, horror, chaos, pride and most importantly the sense of belonging’.

With the vision for North East Coastal Town clear this honouring took form; opener Friends Without Names picks at scar tissue, gnarled post punk gristle which unlocks new sounding doors, whilst the likes of Blue Moon Lake, Shipping Forecast and Incomplete all show that LIFE’s ambition hasn’t dimmed in spite of the wait. Luck can go either way, but this is an album that shows they know the best is the kind is what you make yourself.

You can read a full review here.