SKY LARKIN have taken longer than many other Leeds contenders to release a début album. It's three years since I first saw an early version of the band and it's two years since W&H gave their Dance To The Radio single "One of Two" nine stars. So maybe it isn't so surprising that "The Golden Spike" is such a damn good record.
Katie Harkin, with drummer Nestor Matthews and bass player Doug Adams took their best songs all the way to Seattle in the Summer of 2008. The recordings that resulted, with their first choice producer John Godmansson, could not have come out better. Wichita have come through with a very nice disc of heavy vinyl in a gatefold sleeve to celebrate. And best of all, that irresistible feeling that SKY LARKIN were going to produce something absolutely wonderful one day has been been proved completely right.
Among the 11 tacks there are some oldies. "One Of Two" is there, freshly recorded and sounding much more grown up than it did. "Summit", "Somersault". "Molten" and "Keepsakes" are there too - all improved with time on the road and every one burnished with expert production. The big bonus, just as you would have hoped, is that even better songs have been added from the new repertoire:"Fossil, I", "Pica", "Antibodies", "Octopus 08", "Beeline", "Geograph" and the outstanding "Matador".
The album title itself, chosen from the ceremonial completion of America's first coast-to-coast railway, is a careful reference to the album's long history of perfectionist construction. The (original) Golden Spike, driven gently home in the Spring of 1869 was the end of heroic efforts, and the beginning of even more extraordinary things. Fingers crossed, eh?
The basic elements of SKY LARKIN's appeal are Katie's knowing voice and tersely accurate lyrics with full measures of her restlessly imaginative guitar playing. These are held up very firmly by a devoted rhythm section that always did work twice as hard as your standard grungy engine room . To my ears even Nestor and Doug seem to have been given extra rations and early morning training by the Seattle studios. Disregard any notion that this is lo-fi simplicity or softness. Arses are kicked when mood demands they be kicked. There are some exhilarating guitar noises.
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Lyrically we have some very compressed songs. Inside the fold of the vinyl album cover the printed words look quite lonely. "Somersault" gets but 20, "One of Two" splashes out with 24. But the effect is maddeningly catchy. Phrases like "Beards and barbarians", "sentiment stretched over sediment", "piece of crap's broken" and the perfect "keep, bits, boot, car" follow me round all day long, with Katie Harkin's wry smile enjoying the damage from their bomblet effects. Geology, architecture, engineering, biology, murder and silliness all get a good telling off.
At track nine there is an unrestrained moment of real tenderness and faith. "Matador" is a simply beautiful tune set against nudging guitar chords that leave the underlying rhythm entirely to the listeners imagination. Nestor and Doug keep it subtle too and we have something almost free-form that emphasises the special place this one song has in the album. It's here that we realise (if we hadn't already) that this is not a band spending a year or two off college to have a bit of fun. This is talent too important to lose and too distinctive to drown in comparisons with other artists. If you have seen them live once and you thought they were "OK but nothing to get too excited about", buy the album, put it away and listen to it in a year or two. I think you will hear far more than you heard that first time. You'll soon be scouring your sources for all those hand-made demos, souvenir CD-Rs given away at gigs and the live radio tracks that have kept the project rolling this far. Don't forget to listen closely to all those cunning keyboard parts that I didn't mention.
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