Sometimes average can be worse than god fucking awful. In the sense it can denominate; room for improvement, solid, must try harder, it typically means it doesn’t illicit any real emotion - a bit of a conundrum then.
It’s a useful combination of blues rock-tinged numbers with vocalist Nathalie Stern demonstrating a healthy vocal range in the type cast mould of the pronounced husk of PJ Harvey and to a lesser extent the quirky power of Carina Round but it lacks purpose and vibrancy.
Downbeat and pensive tracks like ’Fireglow’ and ‘Hit and Run’ are inviting enough but inevitably burn out to nothing more than stripped rock ballads. ‘Night’ hints at an abrasive folk edge reminiscent of Sons and Daughters whilst the escaping drum solo three minutes into ‘Man Hands’ are only fleeting moments of immediate volume.
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Pitched to the right audience it’s a means to an end, but after 11 tracks of directionless instrumentation and carbon copy, Lake Me comfortably scuttle into soft rock mediocrity.
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