Jack Ladder - Love IsGone

Thu 20th Nov, 2008 in Music Reviews

Love Is Gone is a great leap forward from Jack Ladder’s 2005 debut album Not Worth Waiting For. While Ladder – or Tim Rogers to his mum and dad – always had in his possession a truly unique and memorable deep, rich voice, it has taken a while for him to write songs that really took full advantage of it. He even alludes to what one can only take to be an observation of his own development in The Boy – “And I feel myself growing and I know it won’t be long.”

With the exception of the earnest ballad Love Your Mind – which revisits the tentative and plaintive folk of Ladder’s earlier output – Love is Gone is a sassy and stomping soulful extravaganza. It is more revue than record, with the songs recorded live to tape in the studio and given a throbbing and shakin’ beat by various Triosk members.

Naturally, as the name Love Is Gone may suggest, the album veers into some forlorn tales of heartache, but any ingrained sadness seems to be countered by resolute swagger. You barely register the pain behind Starting A War’s, “My smiles cracked, my hearts turned black,” as the rhythm of the song is so rollicking. With any door that closes, they say another opens, and as well as expressing the post-dumped desolation, Ladder adeptly captures the first forays into new love quite charmingly as well. What lass wouldn’t want to be serenaded with a pledge of “I love your mind”?

Ladder comes across all the more assured and worldly on this album. The fact that he has spent the large part of the year since recording it being asked to record for the likes of Okkervil River’s Will Sheff only confirms it. In his list of influences Ladder has always held the more ‘classic’ songwriters, your Dylans and Cohens, in high regard. Time has given him a more enlightened view of the world and the life experiences to help him in becoming held in the same regard.

Love Is Gone is now available on Spunk Records.