The Life and Times new album ‘No One Loves You Like I Do’ reminds me of some indie bands from the 90’s that only the music loving college kids knew about. The band, though is playing a alternative/indie rock, they have a style that is not quite fit into one category. It’s also music that’s not being played on the radio or in the local bar/club where the speakers are turned way too high to even hear the person that’s screaming in your ear if you can hear them or not. The Life and Times is that band that plays in the underground hall or very small venue that few know about but once you hear the music you realize that they should be more popular than they are.

Each of the tracks on ‘No One Loves You Like I Do’ the titles for the songs are “Day Three”, “Day Six”, and “Day Ten”, though there are a total of 10 songs, each song has a day number as the title and no they are not in order. The first song is “Day Six”, which starts off by giving this squelching sound that caught my attention instantly. This sound, which is not that great on the ears on first listening, quickly fades into the vocals and what ends up being the mood setting for the whole album. That mood is mesmerizing. It’s not a hypnotic sound that The Life and Times has created on this album, the sound is one that caught my attention, held it, and had me forgetting that there was my surroundings but it also allowed me to realize that at this moment in time I was liking life.

Odd maybe, but yes, that’s the effect these mellow, well played, greatly tuned, songs had on me. The vocals by Allen Epley are strong, smooth, that give the songs some of their mesmerizing aspects. He will hold some of the notes for just long enough before going into the quicker lyrics of the songs that have this gradual up and down feel to the songs. Making the vocals even strong in my opinion is that I can actually understand what is being said. Don’t get me wrong I do like songs that feature the undecipherable lyrics but when I’m in the mood to do some actual singing along myself, being able to do more than just grunt is what makes the songs fun to listen to. ‘No One Loves You Like I Do’ also features some strong instruments, the heart of the songs in fact, that make the songs have the full mesmerizing effect. Even the times when the instruments seem to be played hard by Allen Epley, Chris Metcalf, and Eric Abert, they some still sound somewhat mellow with a more grooving feel to them. Listening to this band I picture the members on stage just engrossed in the way the songs sound and how they are a part of the music and not just up there pounding out some beats. Because of that feeling that I got from the songs I ended up liking this album a lot.