Larkin Poe whip up a storm on Bloom. Vintage sounds given a classy polish.

Release Date: 24th January 2025

Label: Tricki-Woo Records

Format: CD / LP / digital

TEARING CAMBRIDGE A NEW ONE

We were on hand when the 2024 Cambridge Folk Festival was severely ripped apart by Larkin Poe. Their once easy-going and friendly Southern Country Blues roots have been usurped by an amplified and strutting confidence. We particularly like the “female version of Neil Young” description (source – Amazon review of Blood Harmony…).

The accolades that flowed in the wake of the Grammy Award winning Blood Harmony seem set to continue. Bloom appears as a new record that celebrates individuality and champions self-acceptance. A set that plays out like as a journey on which the Lovell sisters discover their true selves.

OPENING BLASTS

The opening blast of Mockingbird (questioning “who was I before, I took it on the chin“) sets out their stall with a smiling defiance. Thoughts of singing a thousand songs just to see who’s listening. Like Frasier Crane, we’re listening. It’s hard not to get caught up in what’s a joyous vibe. A perfect album opener for Larkin Poe in ’25. Roughly hewn yet with a polish, swinging guitar blues that ease into chorus.

The mood is boosted by Easy Love (Pt 1) – the sentiment encompassing the notion of how there’s “something about a man with a guitar...” Accompanied by Megan’s slashes of lap steel and Dobro and a hint of the reedy organ in the background that’s set to reappear for a cameo or two. The word ‘swagger’ surfaces; the Lovells do their version of Tyler & Perry. Ahead of the, erm, easy swing that comes in Easy Love Pt 2, Bluephoria owes a debt to classic Deep Purple. The call and response style is going to be a belter live particularly with those swipes across the strings and graveyard organ lines. “We are who we are, I may not be a star, but I know that I can shine like the moon,” croons Rebecca.

THE DEVIL IN THE DETAIL

A first half that you don’t want to end, the temptation is to stick the needle right back at the start. The notion that any momentum might be lost in the time it takes to flip over the LP dissipated with the driving rootsy rock in Nowhere Fast. Indeed, if Hell hath no fury, the thought that if God is a woman, the Devil is too is tongue in cheeky commentary on stereotyping given a brooding soundtrack. The old Bluesmen of the past might have often encountered Old Nick at the crossroads but these days, he’s more likely to to be rubbing shoulder with denim bedecked sisters.

The same sisters display their defiance in Pearls. Doing what they want, when they want the message cloaked in a helter skelter of slide and sustain. And yet there’s a softening in the soulful vibes of You Are The River and a romantic curtain closer with Bloom Again recalling their country roots albeit briefly and a pervading sense of light.

PLANT WORTHY

Heading off at a tangent, the thought occurs during Fool Outta Me that it’s a song that would be right at home in the hands of Robert Plant and his latest Saving Grace incarnation. Perhaps given a more low key arrangement, but has us scurrying back to the likes of If God Is A Woman to imagine how they might sound in the hands of Perce. And that’s the sort of compliment that the overflow of classy Blues on Bloom deserves.

Here’s Mockingbird:

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