Larry Mindel's debut album is a very moving body of work that captures a strong sense of love along with emotion through the use of what I consider unique and organic orchestral musical instruments. This includes clarinets, cellos, violins, a soft piano and a saxophone, all of which are in their naked form accompanied with a smooth and soft tenor male voice that carries each tune of lyrics in a mellow, romantic style that I feel can only be considered quite eloquent.

Love In Troubled Times takes you through an adventure of love, loss and relationships and this is especially accentuated with the way the instruments often answer back to the lyricist. For instance, In the song “In The Undergrowth (KKM Pt.2)”, Larry uses the alliteration world play “Katie and Kitty”. Seconds after, a warm soft saxophone responds with a mini solo that could represent a relationship between two people. Perhaps the man being Larry and the lady (“Katie and Kitty”), being the lady or in this instance, the saxophone. I also got a bit of a gospel vibe from this song which resonated with me. This was mainly through the use of an electric organ which provided the song with that jazzy, wholesome and almost seductive foundation.

I found “Be Careful How You Go” to be the most poignant. With every lyric that Larry sung, you could hear the impassioned heartache in his voice as he’d prolong each note to emphasise that life is perhaps just a form of “time [that] runs soft and rigged now”. This invited me to think that the time we spend with those we love should be cherished and is only temporary. I found this so inspirational and touching.

For more information, visit his website: www.larrymindel.com

'Love In Troubled Times' is available on all major platforms including Bandcamp.

For a flavour of what to expect, watch the video for “Be Careful How You Go”.

Writer: Amy Tetsola