Album Review: Home by Portuguese Rock Band the LOYD
By: Rui Alves
Tags: Music Business, Music, Review, Culture, Rock

The LOYD, from Santa Maria da Feira, have been buzzing in the Portuguese alternative rock scene since 2004. Hence, a decade had passed when the band released their full-length album Home.

About the band

The LOYD had Jou Maia on vocals and guitar, Paulo Azevedo on bass, Mike B. on drums, and Daniel Amorim (guitar). Their discography includes the EP Done (2007), followed by the debut album Love and Revolution (2010), and Home (2014).

Album Review

At first, we feel a mixture of emotions derived from the highly positive energy that emanates from the songs. The LOYD creates melodies full of rhythmic subtleties and contagious harmonies that are not alien to the vocal tone of Jou Maia.

A special note to the sharp production work, as the band worked with a team comprised of Mário de Sá and Miguel Barros at Replay Studios.

With their sophomore full length, the band seems to have matured, and their songs sound ripe and more complex in their musical plasticity.

If Love and Revolution felt more direct and punk rock, back when the band was a power trio. Home is a Rock opus.

The hastiness is still there, but the melodic component spills through the sound interstices drawn by the guitars, spreading through the rhythmic lines of an eloquent bass.

Track-by-track Analysis

An example of the LOYD’s musical evolution is the single “For a While.” A binge-worthy rock ballad, full of emotion, evolving through crescendos of rhythmic intensity in the best style of the genre most iconic bands.

the LOYD — For a while (official video)

You probably never heard it on the radio because it comes from a Portuguese alternative rock band. Otherwise, radio stations would be playing this song to exhaustion.

The previous songs were closer to the rawness of Love and Revolution, namely “Pleased To Meet You!!!.” Afterward, “Walk Away” is one of the most punk rock moments of the album, only surpassed in intensity and energy by the epilogue “Win or Lose.”

The band’s premise is debatable but straightforward, as the band’s lyrics are all written in English because they feel that Portuguese linguistics is not suitable for singing Rock songs.

From my perspective, things and not that black or white. Rock is not bound to a language. That happens with the Portuguese Fado and the Cape Verdean Morna, but Rock speaks many languages.

Rock is a universal language, while Fado is the language of “Saudade,” a rather Portuguese feeling. Many Portuguese bands deliver top-notch Rock in their mother tongue (and I’m not talking about Xutos & Pontapés).

Hence, the Loyd require a paradigm shift as a band to climb the stairs of the Portuguese Rock pantheon. They should grow beyond their lyrical matrix. And I know they could do it, as they have the creative and emotional potential to translate into Portuguese the fiery Rock that flows in their veins.

the LOYD — Win or Lose (official video)

Final Thoughts

All in all, Home is a good Rock album, a reminiscence from other remarkable opus and with nexuses that are rooted in the genre’s most iconic acts, such as Foo Fighters or Nirvana.

However, it was among myriads of quality Rock albums released worldwide, in English, throughout 2014. But I write this piece as an homage to the LOYD because they signed one of the best rock albums released in Portugal during that year.