Lido is the debut album by the English band th' Faith Healers, released in 1992.[2][3] The band promoted the album in the United States by touring with the Dentists.[4]
Production
Recorded in London, the album was produced by Ott & Robs and mixed by the band.[5][6] The American release includes two additional tracks, "Reptile Smile" and "Moona-ina-Joona".[7] "Mother Sky" is a cover of the Can song.[8] Although often lumped with "shoegaze" bands of the early 1990s, th' Faith Healers paid particular attention to the groove and rhythm of Lido's songs.[9]
Trouser Press wrote that the band cranks "out hypnotic drone rock that crests with cathartic power and recedes."[7]Spin praised the "intense, well-structured blurts of melodic noise."[14]Robert Christgau considered Lido "sheer power-drone, never fully controlled and often breaking into something quite frantic and exciting."[12] The Chicago Tribune stated that "funky bass hooks and lobster-rock riffs on the speedy highlight 'Hippy Hole' spew the punky garage band's attitude."[11]
The New York Times thought that the band "find frenzy, primal release and euphoria in repetition."[15]The New Yorker noted the "swift, jagged guitar work" and "trippy, minimalist vocals."[16]The Washington Post determined that they "recall the edgy intensity of Too Pure labelmate P. J. Harvey, but with a gift for rusty-can grooves approaching the Fall's... It's a potent, and galvanizingly cacophonous, combination."[4] The Los Angeles Times deemed the album "hypnotic and sensual, with Roxanne Stephens' airy vocals serving as the eye of a shifting, swirling storm."[13]
AllMusic wrote that "songs often spring from simple, hypnotic riffs and rhythms which inevitably swerve out of control, screeching with peals of feedback and shooting off sparks—'Hippy Hole' is a white-noise roller coaster, while the taut 'Don't Jones Me' slowly builds from a loping drum beat and a muted guitar line to arrive at a crashing climax."[10]