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It will always remain a mystery to me why Love and Money were never really the success that their music deserved. If you’ve never come across the band before then you’ve really missed a treat. If you like charismatic songs with intelligent arrangements, great musicianship, good lyrics (slightly witty in places) and a great, great voice (i.e. here you have that of James Grant) then that is what you will get on all of their three albums. Littledeath was the band’s final album and swansong and whilst I wouldn’t say it was their strongest there is still much here to admire and enjoy. The album opens with a lovely ‘reprise’ of the closing track; a mix of plucked amd strummed guitar with a wonderful keyboard melody. Then it’s straight into “The Last Ship On The River”; a track so typical of their somewhat Scottish folk music output. Fiddle, mandolin and Hammond Organ join the conventional keyboards, bass, guitars and drums to produce a delightful melody with Grant’s vocals effortlessly delivering a song which tells the story of a lost loved one. I defy anyone to not be singing the chorus after a couple of listens; the track is that good! The achingly beautiful “I’ll Catch You When You Fall” follows; a track full of everything that is good in music for me. The guitar lead is sublime; the piano notes trickle with subtlety in the background; the keyboards add a string complement and the lead and harmony vocals delight throughout to deliver four minutes of splendour. More of the same follows with “Keep Looking For the Light” - a lovely track with a gentle roll throughout where horns give it a jazz feel - but it’s the additional backing vocalists to Grant’s lead that gain my admiration most. Another track of beauty is “Don’t Be Afraid Of the Dark”; my only complaint here is it’s brevity. No such complaints with “Ugly As I Am” and “Kiss Of Life” which clock six and five minutes plus respectively! The latter tracks on the album are perhaps not as strong as those that I’ve mentioned but Love and Money deserve your listening attention if you like music with a more discerning feel. Not their best collectively; but some gems do appear on this album which don’t appear on their ‘best of’ collection so don’t miss out.Read full review
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