The Like sounds like the name of a band that should be cute. Their bio doesn’t help with that notion–three teenage girls from L.A. that thank Gia and Sofia Coppola in their liner notes? Before getting this CD in, I’d read about them in NYLON and BUST, so my hype-o-meter was already going off. And of course, their daddies are in the industry.
But far be it from me to be a snob and pretend that I don’t like The Like (yes, that was bad). I do. The smoky-voiced singer doesn’t sound like a teenager, and that’s a far better thing than 30 year-olds who sound like they’re still in high school. Z Berg–yes, that is her name, apparently sounds like Fiona Apple mixed in with Marianne Faithfull, but with naive breathiness mixed into her sultry purr. They rock harder than I thought they would when looking at their long, pale limbs folded into Rolling Stone-girlfriend-style clothes on the back of the jewel case.
There’s hints of everything from Heart to Throwing Muses, seventies rock, and nineties indie pop, and more than a bit of sex that you’d think these girls are too young to have had. It’s not overt; just there between the lines of crush songs like “Too Late,” making you wonder just what you’re late for. Mostly, their forte is the dreamy, wistful “I know that you’re the only one for me” song, rather than heartbreak; but for all that, they don’t sound like kids. Instead, their lush melodies make me want to sit in the sun and write about the pretty boys that wander past.
