Lovedrug

Everything Starts Where It Ends

[3.5/5] The guitar riff that eases you into Lovedrug’s sophomore album, Everything Starts Where It Ends, could pass for an outtake from OK Computer. Or maybe The Bends. So no, the Ohio quartet haven’t outrun that comparison just yet. But Radiohead were never this intent on playing to the back rows of a stadium. The choruses on Everything hit like the monsters of ’90s alterna-rock, whether they’re bringing the drama like Pearl Jam in Vs. mode or dipping into Billy Corgan’s bag of tricks to majestic effect on “Castleing.” Either way, there’s no shortage of massive and muscular moments here, with some truly inspired guitar work from David Thomas Owen IV, from the scrappy abandon he brings to the solo of “Pushing The Shine” to the towering wall of squall that drops in out of nowhere on the aptly titled “Doomsday And The Echo.” But in truth, this album hits the hardest when the band pull their punches, leaving Michael Shepard’s vocals a little breathing room. He’s an amazing singer with an upper register to rival Thom Yorke’s, but it’s a voice that may be better suited to the nuance of moments found on “Thieving” or “Salt Of The Earth,” where rattling chains provide a haunting backdrop to ominous lyrics about how he can’t hide your death selection. (THE MILITIA GROUP) Ed Masley

ROCKS LIKE:

Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream

Ours’ Distorted Lullabies

Radiohead’s The Bends

IN-STORE SESSION with frontman MICHAEL SHEPARD

I’ve seen Everything Starts Where It Ends referred to as a concept record.

A lot of what was going on the last two or three years was just basically non-stop touring. So the period of time we did have off, I tried to spend doing some writing. And in collecting these songs, I realized there was a natural progression, almost as though if an individual was taking a journey through time, these are the situations he would get into and this is how he would react to them. So the concept would be a life journey and how someone evolves along that journey, whether it’s divine and meaningful or whether things just happen to start where they begin.

How important do you think understanding the concept would be to enjoying the record?

I don’t think it’s incredibly important. I think it’ll be felt more than understood, anyway. It’s gonna feel more like a motion picture than a record, ’cause I think there’s a lot of imagery that makes sense in a certain order.

You’ve said the writing process wasn’t as spontaneous on this album.

I think by that I meant that the writing was more premeditated, where I sat down with specific ideas of what I wanted the song to say and how I wanted the song to feel. I’ve never really done that. I’ve always just flown by the seat of my pants, where I would just sit down and wait for inspiration and whatever comes out, great. But there was something a lot more specific I wanted to get across with this one, so that was a challenge for me to sit down and try to get those specific emotions or that specific idea to come across clearly. Hopefully, people get it.

Does it seem like the parts that kick in on this record rock more than the moments that rock on your first album, Pretend You’re Alive?

To a certain extent-and that was intentional. I wanted to make the soft parts even softer and the hard parts even harder. I think it grabs people’s attention when in one moment you can make them feel sad or melancholy, and then in the next moment make their emotions go through this tornado.

What effect do you think all the touring you did in support of Pretend You’re Alive had on the way this record sounds?

I think it charged us up to get ready for what came next because it was such a long time between that first record and this one. It was important for me to be able to deliver something that really sounded different. -Ed Masley