Love Child
Okay?
12XU
Love Child emerged from the New York music scene in the late 1980s. The band consisted of Will Baum on guitar, drums, and vocals, Rebecca Odes on bass and vocals, and Alan Licht on guitar, drums, and vocals. Having members trading off on instruments and vocals gave the band enormous flexibility, allowing them to jump from twee pop songs to free noise squall, often in the same song.
“Sofa” opens the album with a cute song about the mundane (“Let me sit with you on the sofa”) punctuated with noise freakouts for no apparent reason. Alan Licht was a jack of all trades in the New York music scene being comfortable playing with minimalist composers like Rudolph Grey, post punks like the Boredoms, and straight up rock bands. That influence is felt across the album. “Things I Notice” feels like an outtake from Talking Heads 77, while “2” feels like a jangle pop instrumental. Rebecca Odes’ songs have a nursery rhyme, sing song quality. My favorite Odes song is the brief ode, “Church of Satan.” Accompanied by gently strummed guitar, she sings, “I will join the Church of Satan / When I move to San Francisco / I will be a human altar / Rub my body down with Crisco.”
Okay? has some cool songs and interesting moments, but feels like they were trying to cram everything they could think of into one record. It was Love Child’s first album (1991), and maybe they didn’t think they’d get another chance to make a record.
