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The Daily Tar Heel
Diversions

Music Review: Loamlands

Loamlands
Some Kind of Light
3 stars
Folk rock

Listening to Loamlands’ singer Kym Register is like playing trivia. I hear hints of voices I’ve come to know very well and want to place whom I’m thinking of.

With Loamlands’ debut EP, Some Kind of Light, this sensation is commonplace. On the first track, “Another Reason,” between the galloping acoustic rhythm guitar, thumping percussion and elongated swelling vocals, I hear definite hints of Rusted Root’s “Send Me on My Way.” On the second song, “Scottsboro,” Register’s voice evokes a Dylan-esque wheeze. Also on the album were flitting glimpses of later Lou Reed and Alanis Morissette, among muddled others.

But it’s on the third track, “Folk Hero,” that the band breaks these comparative chains and really starts to shine. A moody, slow-jam with plenty of reverb and a well-recorded, clean electric lead, the song is when one first starts to get a feel for the band’s own sound. It’s impressive, but the lyrics espouse a clichéd, repetitive feel.

The last two songs, “Girl I Haven’t Met” and “Can’t Tell” continue to prove that the latter end of the record is its strongest. The first of the two features a stripped-down acoustic arrangement with dark, folksy overtones centering on the woes of unfound love — it may well be the best song on the record. The second, meanwhile, goes back to a sonic arrangement similar to “Folk Hero,” which seems to be a comfortable niche for the band.

Overall, the record shows promise for the young band, but doesn’t quite cast it beyond the skilled bevy of musicians in the Triangle. Though “Girl I Haven’t Met” is darkly catchy, it’s going to take more personalized exploration of the band’s own sound for Loamlands to take deeper root in the Triangle’s musical soil.

Bo McMillan

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