New York sextet London Plane delivers its new LP, New York Howl, a collection of dark pop songs. Though 1980s synth-driven pop is in the mix somewhere, London Plane is one of those rare contemporary bands that does more than revisit past sonic glories. If the group doesn’t exactly deny the postmodern maxim that there’s nothing new, only new combinations, it also seems to shrug it off, arriving at something that never takes the easy route.
There are remnants of a New York that’s fading or faded via “Roxanne”, a song that could have easily become a collage of sounds derived from the glory days of the Limelight or Warholian excess but instead remains firmly rooted in the now.
It is, according to primary songwriter David Mosey, part of the LP’s central theme, “New York Howl is two love stories, intertwined. It’s a last letter to New York City itself and to the estranged, the isolated, the formerly loved, the ghosts who may still only be neighborhood, or even a couple of blocks, away.”
Meanwhile “Cloud Light” finds the listener becoming lost in a dizzying ecstasy of sadness; “Hearts” once more marches to the beat of its own bass player and drummer, a gutsy slab of avant pop you won’t soon forget.
Throughout, vocalist Cici James strikes a remarkable balance of passion and remove, choosing not to oversell the emotional qualities inherent in the haunted and haunting lines of pieces such as “The Farther Down We Go” or even the comparatively uplifting “Make It Our Own”. She and songwriter Mosey form the creative nucleus of a band that has bright things in store for it, even the music remains deliciously dark.