Published: January, 2007, West Coast Performer Magazine

LoveLikeFire "Bed Of Gold"
(Self-released)
Recorded and mixed at NuTone Studios by Willie Samuels
Produced by LoveLikeFire

By Michael Fortes

For a band that’s just over one year old, San Francisco’s LoveLikeFire has accomplished quite a bit. Already having played live dates with the likes of Morningwood and the Brian Jonestown Massacre, the band commits six songs to posterity here on their self-released debut EP, Bed Of Gold. Through a mix of driving rock, occasionally moody chord progressions and gentle, atmospheric background vocals, singer/guitarist Ann Yu alternately howls like a punk rocker, sings it straight with a slight British accent and softly coos. Most prominent on the EP’s opener “Inner Space,” this sound aims for both the feet and the fist on “A Million Pieces” by adding a pumping bass drum and emotive shouts of “Go! Go! Go! Go!” in its coda. “Bullet Proof” also provides a prime soundtrack for a frantic dance floor.

Yu’s British accent falls right into place and the band’s U.K. influences start to come out on the distorted bass lines of “Radio Nurse,” recalling Radiohead. In fact, looking back to the early ‘90s, LoveLikeFire could easily be called the American version of Lush.

The sounds created on Bed Of Gold thrive on musical drama — with varied dynamics, drum patterns and key changes — in ways that aren’t always knock-you-over-the-head obvious. Case in point would be the subtle placing of synthesized strings in “A Million Pieces” and “Radio Nurse.” LoveLikeFire also keeps the guitar sound fairly consistent throughout the course of the EP, sticking to a limited pallet of musical colors. Slight, occasional changes become all the more interesting against such a backdrop — these subtleties are the very things that make repeated listening to Bed Of Gold such a pleasure. All bodes well for a full-length follow-up, but until then this album remains a very strong debut

www.lovelikefire.com