aaamusic | On 22, Mar 2016

If love is the sweetest thing, then heartbreak is the sour, bitter, unbearably painful thing… However, although it may be unbearably painful to experience, it can also be incredibly lucrative – take Adele, Sam Smith, and Alanis Morissette, for example; they’ve all enjoyed major success at the hands of their sorrow.

Hopefully, Little Green Cars will follow in their footsteps with follow-up Ephemera, a collection of songs drawn from dark emotions that the band members have faced over the past couple of years since debut Absolute Zero was released in 2013.

Having no previous knowledge of their sound at all, the first comparison that springs to mind is that there’s an initial similarity to American band Death Cab For Cutie. And as the first vocals kick in, you could be forgiven for thinking that Michael Stipe of R.E.M had suddenly jumped ship.

There’s a tiny niggle in the back of the mind that says the ever-so-slightly, just-a-touch skewiff vocals don’t quite fit with the feel of the music. The playing and production for the instruments is so sharp, and the vocals seem a bit more, let’s say, relaxed. However, it’s clearly a quirk that they have, so we can roll with it.

As the song goes on, you can really appreciate the vague hint of country, although one can’t help but feel that the sound would have been richer and would have perhaps been a better fit with the overall sombre mood of the song if the second chord of the sequence had been different. But, each to their own.

The drifting ending is also a great touch, and really ties in with how the whole song has really felt quite… well, drifty. Whereas other break-up albums may be emotionally charged and full-on, this song conveys the other side of heartbreak: the solemn listlessness, not knowing what to do or how to go on.

However, ephemeral means something that lasts for a short time. So hopefully the band’s sadness will be ephemeral, and their success will not.

Emma Dodds