Album Review

The Lazarus Plot – Do You Want To Be Someone?

• 13th Sep 2008

A slow building, epic light rock ballad that moulds together slow winding guitars, weeping melodic piano and the pleading, mildly croaky cry out of Daniel Batchelor. This is how plaintive quartet, The Lazarus Plot chooses to follow on from the Tom Robinson (BBC 6) backed previous single ‘The Sun Shines Down’. ‘Do You Want To Be Someone?’ is the sort of song you’d expect to accompany any film based on a Thomas Hardy novel.

A slight Cranberries kick and a Divine Comedy styled maudlin rhythm build increases the intrigue, as does the genuine nature of front man, Batchelor. Arguably, the most striking contribution is in the atmospheric sampling of John Gale that matches the impact and precision of which Joseph Arthur has often produced.

The Lazarus Plot comes across as a band who pieces a song together like a jigsaw, paying great attention to detail in each aspect. With this approach and the sampling of Gale, they can please the purists and the more adventurous listeners at the same time. Not a bad achievement in this day and age.