The Love Language

A vehicle for Stuart McLamb’s songwriting and performing gifts, the Love Language assembles expansive pop constructions from an eclectic array of sources. Evoking the union of Guided by Voices and Arcade Fire under Phil Spector’s production hand, the project originated as McLamb’s solitary endeavor inside his home studio, captured on the 2009 debut The Love Language. Although McLamb’s melodic and thematic outlook remained consistent, the Love Language’s subsequent releases grew more polished and expansive on 2010’s Libraries and 2013’s Ruby Red once professional facilities and sympathetic collaborators became available.

McLamb launched the Love Language in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 2008. His musical awakening occurred at age five upon first hearing Michael Jackson’s Thriller, an encounter that left him immediately captivated. In sixth grade he and a classmate assembled the makeshift group Rebel Deuce, striking a guitar case and strumming an unfamiliar guitar while a Fisher-Price cassette recorder captured the results. At thirteen McLamb began composing on his grandfather’s guitar and soon performed at house parties with friends. Throughout his teens and early twenties he participated in numerous bands until a severe drinking problem and a devastating breakup brought him to a low point in 2007. He quit alcohol, took work at a restaurant, and returned to his parents’ home. In his free hours he resumed songwriting and, using basic digital equipment, tracked the material in a storage unit and throughout his parents’ residence. Bladen County Records issued the resulting recordings as The Love Language in early 2009.

The distinctive mixture of Guided by Voices-inflected indie pop and unsettling production reminiscent of Phil Spector meeting Animal Collective attracted the attention of Merge Records artists the Rosebuds, who invited McLamb to open their shows. He hastily assembled a touring ensemble that included drummer Thomas Simpson, organist Kate Thompson, bassist Joshua Pope, keyboardist/vocalist Missy Thangs, guitarist/vocalist Junis Beefmonth, and guitarist/percussionist/vocalist Jordan McLamb. Once the tour concluded the group dissolved, prompting McLamb’s return to Raleigh for a new album. Assisted by producer/engineer BJ Burton, he shifted from the lo-fi D.I.Y. aesthetic of the debut toward a more orchestrated sound. Libraries appeared on Merge in July 2010. Around the same period McLamb assembled another lineup featuring Burton on guitar, returning member Missy Thangs on keys, and newcomers Justin Rodermond on bass and Jordan McLamb on drums. This configuration formed the nucleus of the studio team that recorded 2013’s Ruby Red, again co-produced by Burton and McLamb.

For later performances McLamb recruited a fresh circle of players that featured Autumn Ehinger on keyboards, Eddie Sanchez on bass, and Thomas Simpson back on drums. While preparing material for a fourth album, McLamb briefly turned to production work on releases by Last Year’s Men, Soon, and the Pretty Ponies. Seeking fresh surroundings, he relocated to Roanoke, Virginia, where his brother helped establish a workspace inside a disused hammock factory. After five months of writing and recording there, McLamb moved to Los Angeles to complete Baby Grand, issued by Merge in 2018.