Le Loup, Family

I had heard of Le Loup before listening to Family; I’d heard the name being thrown around a lot, but I had never actually sat down and listened to the band, so I had no idea what to expect. It took me a few listens to really get into the album, but now that I have, I think there is a lot Family has to offer, and it definitely is something completely different from all the other music on my iPod.

Family has a very organic feel to it and a wide range of influences and styles, all of which can be heard on the album. Le Loup takes these influences and uses them to smartly produce an original product. There are some very heavy, traditional African sounds on many of the songs, something that seems to be used quite regularly in the indie scene right now by other bands like Vampire Weekend, on their latest release, and Animal Collective.

A couple of the songs on the album have a very Vampire Weekend sound to them — not really in the vocals, but in the use of the instruments and the quirky, indie-pop feel to the songs, while others have a completely different sound. On one of the tracks, “Forgive Me,” I could’ve sworn I was listening to Animal Collective. And then, all of a sudden, I thought it was Arcade Fire. On another track, the vocals sound just like Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love.” It’s crazy how diverse the album is — but in a good way.

Images of poodle skirts, juke boxes, and leather jackets flash into my mind when “Grow” comes on, which has a very 1950s, sock-hop feel to it. Then on the next track, “Morning Song,” I feel like I could be listening to some bluegrass band play in a tiny bar in Texas. That particular song really showcases the band’s use of the banjo, something that helps set them even further apart from other bands that play similar music.

I’m not personally a huge fan of bluegrass type music, but Le Loup does something that makes the banjo one of the prettiest elements on the album. Mix that with the piano and computer-created samples, and you have something that is completely original and unique to Le Loup.

It amazes me that bands can have such a variety of songs, yet somehow unify them enough to be put on one album and blend together, and Le Loup is one of those bands. Listening to the album the first few times, I didn’t really notice just how much variety was on the album because all the songs have a common thread that ties them together to create a beautiful record. But when I stopped and paid close attention to each song, I was surprised at how different each one was from the next; some songs focus heavily on the banjo and sound like a bluegrass band while another plays around with samples sounds very experimental yet other tracks focus mainly on the guitar and drums.

Family is the Washington, D.C.-based indie band’s second release, and it does an amazing job capturing all these different styles of music and sounds into something new and interesting. But don’t give up on the first or second listen; it may take you while to really appreciate it and understand how truly unique it really is.