Lavender Diamond - Imagine Our Love (2006)

On their debut EP, Cavalry of Light, Lavender Diamond proved they have a way with seemingly effortless, timeless-sounding songs. Their first full-length, Imagine Our Love, delivers more of their classic but fresh sound, this time with a bit more polish. As the album title suggests, Imagine Our Love's songs are about looking at love from a distance that is sometimes wistful, sometimes hopeful -- or on occasion, both, as on the opening track, "Oh No," where singer Becky Stark's honeyed voice repeats "when will I love again?" over and over, going from optimistic to despairing and back again. It's a trick the band used on Cavalry of Light's "You Broke My Heart" and it works well here too, giving this song and "Like an Arrow" a hypnotic simplicity. The more fleshed-out sound of Imagine Our Love does justice not only to Stark's immaculate soprano, but to the band's eclectic sound. The lavish strings that grace most of the album are surprisingly versatile, lending extra buoyancy to "Open Your Heart"'s soaring pop and slow-burning drama to the countrified "Garden Rose." Songs such as "My Shadow Is a Monday," "Bring Me a Song," and "Here Comes One" show that while Lavender Diamond's heart belongs to the late-'60s/early-'70s heyday of singer/songwriters, AM pop, and country-pop, the band's homages never feel contrived. They aren't all sweetness and light, either, although "Find a Way" positively radiates hope; on "Side of the Lord," Stark laments, "I don't know if I'm to the left or the right," adding just enough grit to the song's mother-of-pearl luminosity. Gently compelling, Imagine Our Love is a striking debut.