Life Of Riley - Lightning Seeds (The)

...on the album is "The life of Riley (remix)" which starts identically to the opening track, and seems to be very slightly different in musical arrangement, the vocals kicking in later than the original, with more echo than the original. I've never been able to work out why this track is here as it brings nothing new to the album. So it can have the same mark as the first track. 8/10   ... more

This album opens with the early brit pop sound mixed with keyboard based track "Life of Riley" , the song best known for being on "Match of the day" as the goal of the month competitions music during the early 90's, talks not of football. The song is a song about the Ian Broudies's (the guy on the album cover and lead singer) son Riley. A soft vocal performance that has you wanting to hear more, but yet not quite blown away to the extent where you'd go out and buy the album for the one song. The lyrics are nice enough but their no Dylan, just like simple easy poetry. 8/10.

The second track "Sense" takes a more uptempo feel and almost dreamy music that sits well with the lyrics and vocals. The song again shows the simple style the Lightning Seeds used of a simple "Brit-pop" formular, with guitar's soft lead vocals, and they mix it with blondie style electronics from the keyboard. The song again is good in all parts but not outstanding in any, which is a shame as it's just about there but falls slightly short right through. The catchy lyrics at the end help to just elevate this above the opener. But again 8/10

"Fools" fills the third position on the CD a nice start to the song that has you tapping your feet right through the intro, when Broudies voice kicks in you automatically feel happier. The dream like sounds of the previous song continues here just with a slightly different feel, maybe a slightly let down feel. This song seems to ditch the strong electronica sounds and focus more on the fundemental guitar, with a nice bit of electronic sounds weaving the way in and out. Another above average song but again fails to hit the dizzy heights of some of the 'Seed's parst song's. 8/10

"Frenzy" starts with an almost disco feel to it with guitar over the top of "scratched" disks (kids ask your parents). Again a throw back to the eletronic era of the 80's, with synthasised opening vocals. The song carrying on throught like this with simple repeated lyrics, not my thing, seems like the lightning seeds tried to experiment and it failed imo. 2/10

"control the flame" follows another techno-ish track this time with Broudie's voice singing out above the music. The lyrics give away a pretty story that has you swinging your hips in time to the beat. The chorus gets you almost wanting to dance, whilst the verses have you hypnotised into listening. Easily the best track so far for overall feel and the way it gets you feeling though not quite perfection it's a far better song than the previous one. 9/10

"Hang on to a dream", the album's shortest song follows it opens with soft piano, before the vocals kick in with the evocative lyrics, that despite being incredibly simple are also very hard hitting. The simple piano based music fitting well with the sad lyrics of a ditched guy, who can't see why he's been left but will keep hanging onto the dream he can get back with her. The song is by far the best so far (overshadowing the previous song) with the only fault being that it is possibly to short (143 seconds). 9/10

"Persuasion" is the seventh track on the album a simple "tip-tappy" sound over a strong lead beat, makes the song sound simple yet also complex, maybe too many layers of simple music. The vocals again sound, but not as soft as some of the earlier songs, sing again such simple lyrics, with you wanting to join in as you imagine soft images of ships and sky's and the stars. A wonderful peice but not as amazing as it could be, again feels like it's mising the "it" factor that some songs need. 8/10

"Something in the air" a techno feel to the intro with a simple beat before Broudies vocal hit in and have you transfixed in amazement at the beauty the with-hold. A simple but yet addictive formula of soft vocals and amazing lyrics easily make this one of the stand out songs. A song you can swear you've seen in a commercial it has the soft sound of remeniscing about a happy day. 10/10

"Where flowers fade" again the strong techno feel to it, with a keyboard and synthesized sounds mainly, with nice wavey lyrics that make you think deeply as the story isn't that obvious, but the images amaze as well as confuse. The sounds fit well together allowing a simple but yet also superbly effective song, which allows the vocals to take you on a twilight zone style journe through the lyrics. 8/10

"Marooned" Back to a bit more of a brit pop sound with a guitar opening that makes me think of the beach (I'm guessingthe idea really), with again wonderful lyrics that makes images pop in and out of your head, and vocals that make you want to hear Broudie's voice more. The chorus is wonderfully written with simple images and rhymes that makes you again feel dreamy with out feeling tired, another one of them oh-so-maybe songs off this disk. 8/10.

"Flaming sword" opens with a pacey happy sounding keyboard with is continued (the happy feel) from the vocals when Broudie starts singing, with multi-layerd vocals being used well. The lyrics again throw images into your head of both thoughts and pictures. The "flute" sound despite sounding out of place also sounds brilliant, the over-all flow and style make this one of the albums best songs. 9/10

The final song on the album is "The life of Riley (remix)" which starts identically to the opening track, and seems to be very slightly different in musical arrangement, the vocals kicking in later than the original, with more echo than the original. I've never been able to work out why this track is here as it brings nothing new to the album. So it can have the same mark as the first track. 8/10  

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