Love On My Mind

Description

With Love on My Mind - a new six-song mini-album mixed by Claudius Mittendorfer (Tennis, Parquet Courts, Johnny Marr) - Bambara condense all the energy and darkness that made them so compelling and rearranges it into something resolutely new. The opening track, "Slither in the Rain," all hi-hat hiss and spectral synth lines, is a true statement of intent. Minimal and atmospheric, it foregrounds Reid Bateh's raw vocals as he introduces one of Love On My Mind's main characters, years after the album's events, a lonely man who throws bottles at airplanes and two-steps in an infinite figure-eight loop. While Reid has always been adept at sketching characters, tracks like "Slither" introduce a new vulnerability, palpable throughout the album, that allows the songs to impact on a more human level. Similarly, "Point And Shoot," in which each verse describes seedy, delinquent scenes, broken jaws, and couches full of burn holes, reveals an autobiographical intimacy not as apparent in previous Bambara albums. This tenderness carries over to "Birds," a rare love song (hence the EP title), and "Little Wars," which closes the album in a grand finale of loneliness and isolation. But while these songs show a softer side of Bambara, it's important to note that they haven't lost the excitement that first drew so many people in. "Mythic Love" with Bria Salmena's vocals, its driving bassline and ricocheting guitar lines, recalls classics like "Serafina" and "Sunbleached Skulls" but obliterates them in the process, while "Feelin' Like A Funeral" - a dangerously swaying story of a knife attack - is probably the most haunting song the band has ever recorded. As a whole, Love on My Mind represents a new step forward for Bambara - the boldest thing they've ever done - and the sound of a new evolution.