Sky Larkin are an energetic trio from Leeds. Katie Harkin sings and plays
guitar, Doug Adams plays bass and Nestor Matthews hits the drums.
Their no-frills approach to composition and performance is refreshing.
They punch way above their weight given the resources at their disposal,
not least of all because of Ms Harkin's splendidly angular guitar playing,
which provides a distinctive chiming quality to the band's overall sound.
Her voice too, despite its limitations, has a snarling punkish charm which
serves the generally raucous material well (think a slightly less disciplined
and very English Hayley Williams and you're somewhere close).
There are a twelve tracks on the album to consider. Highlights would have
to include opening track 'Still Windmills' which has half-a-dozen good
pop-friendly ideas stitched together into one coherent whole; 'Anjelica
Houston', with its boundless enthusiasm and infectiously repeated hook
("as the train pulled out of the station the light hit your face like Anjelica Houston");
'Spooktacular', which rips along at a cracking pace (Mr Matthews lays into
his kit like a man possessed !) and demonstrates the band's significant
ensemble skills and the truly magnificent 'ATM' which finds Ms Harkin
questioning whether "a selfish heart is a truthful muscle or not" (what a
singularly splendid line!) All this and more proves that Sky Larkin have
musical and lyrical savvy (and not a little swagger!) in abundance.
Recorded in Seattle, with producer John Goodmanson recruited to help
bring these songs to life, 'Kaleide' is a more than worthy effort by a
band whose honest and uncluttered approach to their craft may well reap
rich rewards for them in time. I liked it a lot.
Recommended.