The Rosebuds are known for making upbeat guitar-based pop music, so after the duo – Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp – got divorced, you may have expected them to drive their emotions into the music to make either their most intense album yet, or go the complete opposite way and make their most morose. But, they have done neither. Rather, The Rosebuds sound, for the most part, more relaxed than ever on Loud Planes Fly Low.
The songs on this album stay steadfastly at mid-tempo like their previous work, but they attempt to incorporate more instrumentation and atmospherics than before. This is obvious from the off with the opener “Go Ahead,” which sees the addition of an organ in the verses and large amounts of echo on Howard’s vocals in the chorus. Across the album there is incorporation of a lot more strings than ever before, although they’re usually used subtly used, never augmenting the sound or going for anything grandiose, which, on the one hand, makes these songs easy to digest, but on the other, means that there aren’t really any standout instrumental moments. Nevertheless, they certainly help in transforming The Rosebuds’ sound into something quite different and generally beautiful, most evidently in the eloquent instrumentation in the placid chorus of “Limitless Arms,” or the underlying sinister-sounding violin in “Second Bird of Paradise.”
The main criticism of Loud Planes Fly Low is that it sticks to this languid and dense sound a little too much. There are couple of instances where they change this, and both are highlights of the album. The stand out ballad “Without A Focus” is the most honest song on here; Howard directly talks about the breakup, and tells us that he doesn’t know how he’s “supposed to feel.” At the other end of the scale is “Woods,” where The Rosebuds sound urgent for once, but rather than talk about feelings, we get a string of abstract images, which can be off putting, but the sweeping guitars and tinkling chimes make this song the most immediate on the album.
The overall middling tempo of the album allows The Rosebuds to deliver their lyrics at a measured pace, which gives them space to subtly reveal their vulnerabilities. For example, at face value “Come Visit Me” – the only Crisp-led song on here – is a purely catchy song that’s one cheesy synth line away from Eurythmics-style chart hit, with a typical cliché chorus of “I need you to save me.” But Crisp softly slips in the follow up line “even if it makes it worse,” making you think twice about the subject matter. These little knives are crop up throughout the album, often catching you off guard and making you want to listen again to discover more hidden depths.
Overall, Loud Planes Fly Low sees The Rosebuds trying something new with their sound; adding more layers but simultaneously keeping it simple, sliding the new sounds in comfortably alongside the melodies rather than letting them overtake the song. Although this means that Loud Planes Fly Low is far from spectacular, we’ve still got a rich and warm-sounding album that doesn’t take too much trouble to enjoy. It’s not the album we’d have expected out of a breakup, but it’s fair to say that The Rosebuds are making the best of a bad situation.
