The 1981 Listening Post - The Sound - From the Lion's Mouth

The Sound - From the Lion's Mouth 

#611

By Chris Roberts

November 1981

The Sound

From The Lion’s Mouth

Allen’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Chris’ Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Genre: Post punk gem

Highlights:

Winning

Sense of Purpose

The Fire

Silent Air

From The Lions Mouth is a strong rock record in the 1980s U2 tradition of Velvet Underground and Joy Division influenced bands. The singer often reminds me of Ian McCulloch from Echo & The Bunnymen. That’s easier to say than saying U2 sounds like The Sound. Do you also like the way The Sound sounds? You too? I’ve already written one review that takes more shots at a band’s name than their music (thank you, Kix), so I’ll spare you another long one. The Sound is a terrible band name for many reasons. The most I can say for the name is that it’s kinda of pretentious (and so is U2) so it works that way.

But rather than FTLM being another Bono hairball, it’s my first real Listening Post discovery. I had not heard The Sound (ugh…) before this review, and did no research before my first listen—I just looked at the front cover. Which might be all you need to do to make the call—the visual aesthetic is spot on. An unnerving, old monochromatic painting, plus some modestly styled italic type—it could be Bauhaus, or The Smiths, or New Order. And for fans of those bands, it’s hard to imagine you’d be too disappointed with From The Lions Mouth. So, The Sound got the cover right.

The music is even better. The album opens with “Winning,” which suggests an alternate reality where Robert Smith instead of Survivor was asked to provide the hit for Rocky III. “Sense of Purpose” could be straight off Boy (and would be one of the best songs). “The Fire” rips and “Silent Air” soothes. While I have drifted away from U2, Echo and music like this, there’s not a bad song here, and it was a nice reminder about being open-minded. Saying this band sounds like U2 is not an insult—if anything, FTLM just proves how lucky U2 were. If I have a complaint, it’s that on first listen, most of FTLM sounded samey, but I also said that about The Joshua Tree and OK Computer, and look where we are today. Winning! What made me appreciate FTLM even more, was it’s not really a mope-fest (which killed New Order’s Movement for me). Yes, there are songs named “Skeletons” and “New Dark Age,” but it’s not Halloween every damn day. For The Sound, there’s problems, but they’re confronting them. 

I have gone back a read a little bit more on The Sound, but I won’t regurgitate, I just recommend you do as I did—if you haven’t heard it, give this underrated gem a go.

https://open.spotify.com/album/2neFxutkHmjJ8jVAXcXynI?si=nknOtuglTXKjzNxYVOWrCQ