Ultimate Painting - Green Lanes

As I understand it, Ultimate Painting is an accidental group.  James Hoare of Veronica Falls and Jack Cooper of Mazes were on tour with their bands, met and clicked musically.  After noodling around for fun, they decided to record.  The resulting 2014 self-titled release was deservedly well-received (our review here), prompting James and Jack to reconvene in James' bedroom and record Green Lanes.  The new songs reveal two adept songwriters whose styles mesh very well together.  And while the pairing may have been accidental, there is nothing accidental about the music.  The emphasis is on summery, psych-tinged pop melodies featuring appealing harmonies and excellent intricate and jangling guitar lines.  Both artists are vocalists and guitarists, and both contributed songs to the album.  This allows each of them to take lead vocals on their own compositions while the other takes the lead guitar role.  It also means that the stylistic differences in their generally complementary songcraft precludes the danger of 'sameness' that can affect some guitar pop albums with a single composer.  The first song streamed below is Cooper's "(I've Got The) Sanctioned Blues", and the second is Hoare's "Break The Chain".   We also have the live performance in KEXP's studio, and a clip of Hoare's wonderful "Sweet Chris".

On Green Lanes Jack and James eschew fireworks for songs that grow on the listener and continue to deliver satisfaction long after the first listen.  In fact, you may just want to make this album your life soundtrack while getting to know it.  You won't be disappointed.










Green Lanes is out now via Trouble In Mind Records, which is building a very impressive catalog of releases this year

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