La Sera

Never Come Around [7-inch] (2010)

John Gentile

The video for La Sera's "Never Come Around" features Katy Goodman (also of the Vivian Girls) cutting up a bunch of ex-boyfriends with a butcher knife. The kicker is, at the end, they all sing along in delight with Goodman after being dismembered!

But who can blame them? "Never Come Around" is a song as beautiful as it is deceptive. Goodman's soft voice trickles up and down a '70s AM pop guitar line while echoes of the sounds trail…and trail…and trail…until they loop back into the lead vocals, creating an almost psychedelic soul ballad. Although the vocals can be hard to discern, it seems that the song is about a neglectful paramour, which when held up by such an angelic and seemingly joyous background, gives depths to the words that would be lost if they were printed on paper alone.

The flipside, "Behind Your Eyes" is more in line with what the Vivian Girls have been doing. The band jumps out with a more aggressive approach and rocks along with their patented, updated Motown/girl group-meets-shoegaze sound.

Although it seems as though the Vivian Girls may be headed by Cassie Ramone, on this single, Katy Goodman shows that there's enough talent to around in that band, and it's going into others as well.