The Lassie Foundation has a signature sound that is a tightly wound mixture of low-fi indie noise with just enough melody-consciousness to keep the songs accessible. Their latest release, Dive Bomber, is similar to their last one, California: short yet full of the kind of brilliance that leaves you yearning for more.
The title track--with its drum machine opening and bleeping electronics, and later on its thumping drums and screeching guitar--recalls Fold Zandura or Pop-era U2 more than The Lassie Foundation. Though this song is a bit of a departure for the band, its freshness and smart pop sensibilities easily make it the best on the disc.
One of the other new songs, "You Are Infinity," displays the same kind of studio-polished sound as the title track. Lyrically, this song celebrates the eternal aspects of God, while the rest of the album's lyrics tend to deal more with love and relationships. The "live" song "She's The Coming Sun" is new also, and though it sounds similar to the bands California era songs, it fails to stand out.
The three purportedly live songs, "I Can Be Her Man," "I'm Stealin' to be Your One in a Million," and "She's the Coming Sun," appear to be deceptively labeled. The lack of crowd noise and other improvisations of live cuts suggests that they were not recorded in a concert setting. Perhaps they were merely recorded in a garage somewhere.
Despite the fact that only three out of five songs are new, this is a solid release meant more to appease die-hard fans until the release of the band's next major release, than it is to make new ones. Check out the bands web-site for more information.
By Joe Rockstroh (1/24/99)
