The Orange Lights - Life Is Still Beautiful Album Review

The Orange Lights
Life Is Still Beautiful
Album Review

It's not a bad start in life for a debut album to boast the talents of a guitarist from Spiritualized and the keyboard player and songwriter from the Lighthouse Family, but Newcastle band The Orange Lights (happily) don't sound like either of those bands. Instead, the anthemic rock is a whole lot more Travis, Coldplay and Feeder.

It's a gorgeous thing, too - as gorgeous as Travis could be when they were good. Life may still be beautiful but The Orange Lights' beauty is a rather unchallenging thing - there's a niceness and a lack of art to the lyrics that fans of the Lighthouse Family may recognise. But, unless you spend a lot of time listening to lyrics, they're not distracting - it's a wash of typically building intensity, songs that grow in intensity and atmospheric drama, played beautifully and mixed perfectly. The Orange Lights have come together perfectly - they have had green lights in the States and look set for a large stage here. Album of the week.

4/5

Mike Rea