The newly named, Ludlow Creek, are re-releasing their debut album, and we’ve been having a listen to the track, What About Love, here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today.
The song grabs your attention at the start with a lovely drum fill and moves into some long held notes on keys, and strummed guitar.
Backing harmonies come in, mostly in the chorus to bolster up the lead vocals. This is a song about peace, love and understanding. Its about the ability to disagree completely with a friend’s stance on a situation; be it politics or whatever, and still be able to move past it and remain friends. The world needs a message like this right now.
The guitar solo felt a little like early Eagles and filled out the space nicely. The key change was a nice touch, but we felt it would have made more impact with more of a build up to it.
This is a band that are probably a lot of fun in a live situation. They seem kind of raw in a way, and perfect for a midwestern bar gig or outdoor town jamboree.
At 4 minutes 20, this is unlikely to be a commercial hit, but certainly has potential for country/classic rock specialist stations and college and local radio around Ohio.
This feels to us like a debut album. It feels as though the band are finding their feet in the recording studio and this track is just a little grass roots and lo-fi feeling. It was, however, the message of the song that we were most drawn to the most when we heard What About Love and we can’t take anything away from that positive vibe. The band will settle into their new name and we have no doubt that exciting things are afoot. With both management and label backing, Ludlow Creek certainly seem to have all their ducks lined up for success.
For us, the production on What About Love lets the song down a little. The track is about 5dB quieter than commercial releases and with very little stereo in it. We’d suggest also, a little more compression on the vocals, together with some additional reverb to bring some life and character. A boost around the 250-300Hz mark will add a little warmth, together with a slight dip around 500Hz and 1000Hz to filter out some dominating boxy frequencies. An upper shelf of the top 2 21/2 octaves will add some extra brightness in the drum and vocal tracks.
What About Love has a positive message that’s delivered in a confident bundle of country/ Eagles style rock that is guaranteed to please a midwestern audience without a doubt.