Fear of Fours

On their second album, Lamb had more money to spend, and they spent it on horn and string arrangements and a live backing band (trumpet, upright bass, drums). Singer Lou Rhodes shed the open earnestness of the debut, adopting a sneering, nasal tone that worked well with her jazz singer’s phrasing and floated lightly atop the grooves Andy Barlow constructed. “All In Your Hands” is a lost James Bond theme, Lamb attempting to out-Portishead Portishead (and succeeding); “B Line” dances on the line between jazzy and kitschy; “Ear Parcel” samples Charlie Parker without making a thing out of it. Bassist Jon Thorne is the album’s secret weapon, the crucial member without whom the whole thing would fall apart.