Love Spirals Downward >> This changes everything

California Month continued, tremor #34:

Love Spirals Downwards - "Sideways Forest"

(Projekt Records, 1996)

My introduction to Love Spirals Downwards was on a sampler CD from Alternative Press magazine called Indie Gestion 12, right after I'd started subscribing to it in 1996.  The song was this one.  The lyrics are here.  This band's music was done by a guy named Ryan Lum, while the vocals and lyrics were done by his then-sweetiepie, Suzanne Perry.

I gradually acquired LSD's first three albums in the '00s, mainly in the cheapo used CD racks at The Mushroom.  "Sideways Forest" was released as the band's only single, so it's probably their best-known song overall.

CD single cover

1996 promo poster

CMJ said "Ever is an achingly beautiful, enchanting maelstrom of emotion that fuses honey-dripped vocals, delicate guitars and electronic backdrops of sedate, swirling synthesizers, effectively capturing what Halstead and Goswell missed in their transition.  Slow, somber, and beautiful beyond reason, this LSD just might be the burgeoning leader of another full-on ethereal rock revival."  I think all that hyperbole does the band a disservice.  They were a band with a few good songs per album, not some revolutionary force of nature (maelstrom) that could redefine music.  I would have preferred at least a little bit of aggression or atonality from them, to show that they have a pulse and were not just content to rehash the 4AD catalog.  (The band Velour 100 in fact did this on their stunning debut LP.)  But for what they did, they were one of the best, though it's really hard for me to sit through more than one or two of their songs in a row, due to how sugary and melodramatic they are.  One other thing that ticks me off about this band is the "s" at the end of its name.  Maybe it's grammatically correct that way, but I always thought of it as "Downward," so I've had to unlearn it.  I still think it'd look much better that way.  For a band that's so focused on little details, I think they missed the boat on that.

Some other good LSD songs to check out are "Subsequently," "Promises," "Madras," "Depression Glass," "El Pedregal," and "Tear Love From My Mind."  Lum later recruited a different waif on vocals and renamed the project Lovespirals, but I've never heard anything by that lineup.  I guess when he exchanges her at the goth store at the mall for another singer, he can rename the band Spiraldown, and then Love Downwards, and so forth.  Hopefully he won't pick out a Taylor Momsen from the used rack based on her appearance alone.  Plus, you have to check to make sure she's gotten all her shots.

Planets with similar climates: Film School - "Sick Of The Shame" (2005), Velour 100 - "Stare Into Light" (1996), Slowdive - "Spanish Air" (1991), Cocteau Twins - "Road, River And Rail" (1990), Low - "I Remember" (7" version w/ Mimi on vox) (1998), Hugo Largo - "Never Mind" (1989).