Ludo’s lyrics beat their beats

Ludo shows off their flare for storytelling.

By Jess Camp

Published Feb. 29, 2008

Ever have one of those days where the need to swing dance just hits you like the need to regularly flash their girl-parts hits Britney, Lindsay and Paris? If you’re one of the many who are afflicted with the constant need to jump into a cool yellow tux or a flirty, old-school dress, then Ludo’s latest album, You’re Awful, I Love You, is your new weekend vice.

The album kicks off with “Love Me Dead,” a jazzy, fast-paced song. It makes you feel like you’ve just jumped into a scene of a black and white movie that stars a bunch of greasers wielding combs marching up and down the street as worried-looking gals cling to their arms. Soon, the tension in the song escalates, and you can imagine the nerds and the tough guys duking it out. At the end of the song, the innocent girls are clad in leather and have sparkly combs of their own. Ludo’s lyrics don’t exactly fit in that fun world, though. They’re about a guy who hates but loves his girlfriend: “You’re a parasitic psycho filthy creature fingerbanging my heart/You call me a drunk, does the fun ever start?” are his sentiments to his lucky lady.

If the opening song is like something out of a musical, then “Lake Pontchartrain” is out of a horror-tinged mystery movie. It’s a big story about how the singer and his friends want to get of Missouri (which they pronounce ‘misery’ — funny) so they take I-55 down to Louisiana. Along the way people offer them crawfish and try to convince them to go down to Lake Pontchartrain. They stop at a rest area to decide if they want to go to the lake, when all of a sudden, “Out of the bayou came a man like the lake had a tongue/He was right up on the glass, all yellow-eyed, black teeth, banging on the windshield/Screamin’ like a demon at the top of his lungs/Come down to Lake Pontchartrain.” Oddly enough, they freak out and decide to flee the scene. But it starts to rain, which makes them last. Somehow in their confusion they end up at the devil lake. In the end, the lake eats his friends and spares him. What a weird world.

If you’re the kind of person who thinks it’s the lyrics as opposed to musical notes that make a great song, you’ll love this album. While the beats are okay, the lyrics are the album’s greatest attribute. Each song spins a different tale and lets the listener escape into Storyville.

Ludo is like a chameleon of music. With each song, they perform in a new style. Some of the songs sound jazzy while another sounds like Yellowcard, and another is reminiscent of 30 Seconds To Mars. At times Timothy Convy’s voice is soft, but at other times it’s loud and takes control of the song. It’s like he takes on a different character for each song, and sings it the way the character would.

Overall this album is decent. It’s unique and has a lot of interesting things to say, but a lot of the songs are boring and not that inspiring.