Music Preview: The Love Language At Emo's

Sometimes, an album you listen to has a easy reference point: The Suburbs and mid-period Springsteen, for example. This is not the case with The Love Language's beautiful and catchy Libraries. While it evokes loads of influences, you can make of it what you will: different tracks remind us of everything from Los Lobos to The Walkmen to classic rockabilly to fellow North Carolinians The Rosebuds. Since finding a primary reference here is a challenge, it's quite helpful that Merge Records is actually streaming the whole album on their site.

What we can tell you about The Love Language: this band is creative, evocative, optimistic, and bursting with ideas and singalongs. Originally a one-man project from Stuart McLamb, the group moved from some promising but messy sonics on their 2009 home studio EP to a fully-formed, highly polished group on their full-length debut. There are a lot of songs about relationships and drinking here, which is pretty much what everyone writes about, but the sounds are pretty, hooks abound, and there's some introspection and love mixed in in healthy doses. We highly recommend seeing them - after all, they've caught the attention of Merge, meaning that more likely than not, they'll soon be graduating to larger venues.

Opening the show are Austin's December Boys, who list the Sir Douglas Quintet, The Rolling Stones, and Jackson Browne as influences on their Facebook page. Matt from the excellent TV Torso will also put in a solo appearance to kick off the evening, so turn up early.