Ultimate Painting – Green Lanes – Album Review by Killian Laher

Jack Cooper and James Hoare, of Mazes and Veronica Falls respectively, return less than a year on from their debut collaboration with a hasty follow up, Green Lanes. If their self-titled debut was the sound of New York cool, on this one they have shifted to warmer sunnier climes, California maybe? Opening track Kodiak is so laid back it’s practically slovenly. It’ll be a good one to lope along to on those lazy summer days. However much of the rest of the album is a bit samey, leaning to heavily on jangly guitars and sweet harmonies without much degree of variation. A couple of tracks in, The Ocean takes more than just a title from late period Velvet Underground. But no sooner does it start to unfurl and expand a little, then it’s gone two and a half minutes in. Indeed all 12 tracks here add up to just over half an hour.

Two From The Vault and I Was Lost are narrow-focused and slight along the lines of the Velvet Underground’s third album but too many other tracks take a sprinkling of the Byrds without adding an awful lot (Sweet Chris, Break The Chain). In fairness, Woken By Noises does a good job of updating Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues for the 21st century, but otherwise the transition between tracks is barely noticeable . Their debut felt airy, breezy and like it just came together naturally. This follow up feels more thrown together and probably won’t stay on your headphones into the autumn.

Tracklist –

1. Kodiak
2. Sweet Chris
3. (I’ve Got The) Sanctioned Blues
4. The Ocean
5. Two From The Vault
6. The Ocean (reprise)
7. Break The Chain
8. I Was Lost
9. Tee Zee Em
10. Paying the Price
11. Woken By Noises
12. Out In The Cold

Break The Chain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD8PnpiRLGQ&app=desktop