A lot changes when you move to a big city… and there’s no bigger city with more opportunities to grow or get lost (or both) than the Big Apple. Laveda — after relocating to Queens from their hometown of Albany — offers a much grittier sound in their third album Love, Darla: a 10-track fever dream detailing the duality of love and loss while living in the city that never sleeps.
Formed by Ali Genevich and Jacob Brooks (and eventually adding in a rhythm section with Joe Taurone on drums and Dan Carr on bass), Laveda puts a punk rock spin on the shoegaze genre, releasing their first full-length album in 2020 entitled What Happens After. Now signed to Bar/None Records and adjusting to a bustling metropolis, the band reveals an edgy evolution in their sound with Love, Darla — it’s more garage grunge than not.
What does a big city and grunge rock have in common? A lot of distortion.
Which is exactly how Love, Darla starts and ends. A punk bassline and disorganized beat drop after a full minute of guitar feedback, with Genevich lending listeners an immediate lesson in apathy — “I don’t care… I just want to feel let down”. From soft vocals to screams, the audio chaos continues until the incongruous beat gives way to a much slower tempo for the last minute of the song as if anger gave way to acceptance. Emotions have cooled — for now.
Repetition is central to Laveda’s lyricism, with many songs emphasizing the same point over and over. For instance, track two’s “Cellphone” has Genevich claiming “everybody needs you” after listing personal offenses. Is the declaration about phones? The city? Criticism? Whatever the case, it’s time to disconnect from the feedback.
Unless it’s coming from the guitar amp.
The album continues to traverse the poetic with the perverse in “I Wish” and ” Dig Me Out”, the latter fading from anguish to silence at the end. “Strawberry” punches back in the punk bassline with a pounding beat, before “Heaven” pulls back the intensity with Genevich reassuring herself that she’s “gonna be fine” despite losing all her “self-control”. With nonstop temptation, it’s hard to know when to stop. Which brings the listener to “Highway Meditation” — a stop-and-go monologue of chasing the dream. Just “float, stay in rhythm” and dress to impress; someday, you’ll find a “cure” for all this self-induced madness.
The album ends with “Bonehead”, “Tim Burton’s Tower”, and “Lullaby — all asking questions. Will you save me? Will you still sing about me after “you walk away”? “When you come around, will you think of me”? Laveda’s twisted tale of coming to terms with being a tortured soul concludes, like we said, just the way it started — guitar distortion (and a bit of added despair for lack of resolution).
Love, Darla is now available on all digital outlets, as well as via vinyl (for those who cherish hard copies). The vinyl is beautiful, too, pressed olive green to match the album’s artwork. For more information or to grab your own copy today, visit the links below.
Laveda – “I Wish”
Laveda – “Dig Me Out”
Track listing:
- Care
- Cellphone
- I Wish
- Dig Me Out
- Strawberry
- Heaven
- Highway Meditation
- Bonehead
- Tim Burton’s Tower
- Lullaby
Stream ‘Love, Darla’ album:
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Disclaimer: All views presented in this album review are those of the reviewer and not necessarily those of Top Shelf Music.
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