It’s undoubtedly true that you shouldn’t judge a band by its name (nor a book by its cover, or an album by sleeve), so I don’t know what I was expecting from the moniker Love Rarely, but it certainly wasn’t the edgy math rock/emo/hardcore mash-up that greeted me when I spun their latest album, Pain Travels. Born from Leeds’ vibrant (and ever expanding) alternative scene, Love Rarely created ripples with their emotionally-charged brand of heavy music and their stock increased exponentially via their recent tour with The Callous Doaboys. Building upon all their recent hard work, Pain Travels is an album that will find Love Rarely continuing their upward trajectory.
As you’d expect from a band releasing their debut album, Love Rarely have little time to waste on elongated introductions or fancy preambles, and Pain Travels’ opening track ‘Will’ arrives as if from nowhere. A bullet appearing between the eyebrows, you kind of feel it before you see it, and it is all the more impactful for its sudden arrival. With an electrocuted, staccato riff, Love Rarely make a bold statement with ‘Will’ and one which is hard to ignore. At once tuneful and discordant, it’s an insidious number that will (pun intended) immediately ingratiate itself in your psyche, but be warned; once inside, it won’t be leaving anytime soon. Love Rarely’s sense of urgency is undoubtedly their greatest strength; they don’t use two notes when one will suffice and as such songs like ‘Repulse’ are shorn of any excess weight. Saying all it has to in sixty succinct seconds ‘Repulse’ (like ‘Blame’ and ‘Whiplash’) operate with a kind of reductionism; these are songs boiled down into undiluted form and as with pure alcohol, they’re a pyromaniacs dream and 100% proof. Yet, Love Rarely can also stretch things out, as they do on ‘What You Did’, employing tone and timber to great effect, specially selecting notes that resonate with the listener on a deep, primordial level and tug hard on the heartstrings.
Musically, Love Rarely are like an extension of New York’s now (sadly) defunct Polar Bear Club. While this Leeds quintet are no copyists, they share a similar modus operandi and manipulate sonics in the same way; moments of visceral rage, delivered with red raw vocals and distorted guitars and tempered by ethereal, almost otherworldly moments; each create a foil for the other, acting as a mirror to highlight and enhance its opposite number. This is most notable on final track ‘Through Families’, a track that’s akin to walking through a hall of carnival mirrors as all the facets of the band are reflected and fractured in all directions. On an album that finds the band examining the scars life leaves, ‘Through Families’ ends on a note of hope, and signposts a bright future.
- Pain Travels is released via Big Scary Monsters on 10th April 2026.
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Track List:
- Will
- Repulse
- Severed
- I’ll Try
- Haunted
- Blame
- What You Did
- Mould
- Whiplash
- Dormant
- Disappear
- Through Families
