Lives & Times - Hoarse

09.03.2014 , Kev Rowland

After two CDs on their own No Image label, two more on SI and another on Cyclops, L&T released their sixth (and final) album back on their own label. Richard Wileman is still there of course, along with Andy Skittrall on bass (his third album for the band) and Phil Legende who guested on drums on their third album ‘Waiting For The Parade’, but the most important aspect to note is that vocalist Lorna Cumberland was no longer with the band! Her place was taken by Ileesha Bailey, who heralded a slight musical shift for the band. This is now a more forthright songs-based outfit producing songs that wouldn’t sound out of palce either in the charts or on any singer-songwriter connoisseur’s playlist. There is far more emphasis on guitars and much less on keyboards. Some of the songs such as “Let The Clouds All Melt Away” are commercial with only a few (such as “Landmarks”) sounding rocky and more challenging.

The result is the most immediate album to date from the Swindon swingers and it is one that will definitely appeal not only to die hard fans but also who to many others who like female vocals and most importantly damn good songs. Of course, what no-one realized at this point was that this was going to be the final album from Lives and Times as Richard decided to follow a different musical direction and formed a new project, Karda Estra. Of course, Richard and Ileesha still work together in that project, but her voice is used in a very different way indeed, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who looks back at these albums and wonders why they were never well-known, as it was certainly deserved.