I found out about Loons by Loons yesterday and I’m quite a big fan from what I’ve heard. The album was released in 1997 with a CD under Elefant Records. It was their first album released, they released another album four years later. It is considered Chamber Folk and Slacker Rock. If I had to describe their music myself I would call it dainty.
For their size I was actually able to get some pretty decent information on the band. Loons was created by Erwan Brousine (vocals, guitar, backing vocals, programming, and synthesizers) and Morgan Caris (bass and guitar) in 1993 after meeting in a Paris school and being friends for a while. Caroline (vocals) joined eight months after the creation of Loons when she found a note seeking a singer at a Parisian venue called Danceteria that was posted by Erwan. Together their music is very quiet and filled with unique noises, it also contains quite a few duets between the two vocalists.
There are a grand total of 12 tracks in this album, no interludes, just songs. Honestly none of the songs are bad but they definitely played it safe, which makes a lot of them sound pretty similar. I think the last four songs of the album are the best but “Listeners”, “Nosy Skies” and “Settled Ice” are also pretty good. My favorite part is the light guitar, I think it fits in so perfectly and gives the bass room to breathe. The extra instruments are also an amazing addition, I love it when songs use woodwinds because they’re such a rare treat. One last thing I’d like to touch on is the duets. I really like when music like this does duets between a male and female vocalist (especially when they’re in falsetto).
You’d think that a good album with no bad songs would give it an amazing score but I think the music is too consistent with itself to let that happen. I don’t think I could tell most of the songs apart, besides some of my favorites, because of how similar some get. Because of no real evolution or change in the album I’m going to give Loons by Loons a 3.7/5. Overall, I think this album is a good passive listen but shouldn’t be listened to all at once, maybe a couple songs in a playlist with similar artists.
