Lowertown - Friends

[polidelia]

Friends is the debut album by the band Lowertown, which is as far as I'm concerned, Olivia O. and Avsha W.
 

ALBUM COVER REVIEW: It's Olivia O. She is dolly pretty, and with the odd makeup + tousled gold hair it all makes for a perfect cover.
Not considering the album title, that is.
 

• "George" is dreamy and happy paced. Olivia's voice is very wonderful, and Avsha's backings makes a good contrast.
• The good mood continues with "Charlie" in a personal acoustic engaging song.
• In "Gerald" Avsha sings too, now in parts as lead, and has quite a personality. Backing vocals play a huge part in this dreamy voyage.
• Vocals are in a resty mood in "Caroline", and guitar takes lead. Feels like something's missing, thought. Maybe it is the fantastic background vocals of the album until here. It feels a little weak of a track.
• "Lawrence", with it's electronic simple background follows the quietness of the track before, and so does the vocals. Electronics end up quite clumsy.
• "Henry"'s soft voices and guitars make an enjoyable song of calmness.
• The "Outro" is an orquestral-like jazzy beautiful instrumental closure.

Friends is an enjoyable album. It kicks off great and while some middle songs are not as good the the starters, they're not BAD. They just feel performed in laziness, which is fair for an album about friends. I like it that it is a conceptual album, and the theme is a fresh idea.
I personally liked "Gerald" the most, for its beautiful backing vocals and Avsha's singing, which is a pity that happens only here.

I feel they should have powered the slow songs a bit, so the album could have felt more fluent. The non-lazylike songs thought, were perfectly executed.

More than lazylike songs, they felt like OK background guitar music. 

2/5 stars.

https://lowertown.bandcamp.com/album/friends