Allo Darlin’ – We Come From the Same Place
- Written by Andrew Seaton
They say you can always tell a person by the company they keep. London-based indie poppers Allo Darlin’ come out very well indeed if this is true. Since stepping out with 2010’s self-titled Allo Darlin’ they have won friends among the royalty of the British indie pop world, including crown prince Darren Heyman of Hefner, and the mighty Wave Pictures.
For fans of previous albums, including 2012’s Europe, there is plenty of the familiar in We Come From the Same Place. Opening tracks ‘Heartbeat’ and ‘Kings and Queens’ could have come from either of the two previous efforts, with Elizabeth Morris’s ukulele-loops and earnest stories of student bars and ruminations on past romances playing to the band’s strengths nicely. Lyrically, Allo Darlin’ are heartfelt and thoughtful but never annoying. Which is admittedly a delicate balance to strike but done well here.
In a slight shift, there is more of guitarist Paul Rains in this record, which is to be welcomed. His jangly contributions are brilliant in tracks such as ‘Angela’. ‘Bright Eyes’ is a stand-out song, and sails very close to the wind with its rock pretensions, as Rains’s guitar powers it, alongside his vocals. Immediately after comes the far softer ‘History Lessons’, accounting for the range Allo Darlin’ are capable of.
While somewhat weaker towards the end, the sing-along value of ‘Crickets in the Rain’ offset the weaker tracks it is bookended by. We Come From the Same Place emerges a tightly executed album that provides a lot of fun, one that will only help Allo Darlin’ retain the admirers they have already won.