It is easy to see why Para Lia often finds itself compared to the likes of The Mission, The Cure or any number of other bands who spanned the rock-goth divide but to focus too much on such references would be to miss the band’s real charms.
They have a melodic sensibility that leans into an almost pop place whilst also playing with the sound of alternative rock’s finest hallmarks. There is something hazy and almost psychedelic in the vocal deliveries, which seem to coat the music in a wonderful sonic veil rather than try to rise above it. And there is a fantastic sense of dynamic playfulness which here sees them construct spiralling sonics before abandoning such architecture to drop back down to ground level to begin the building process again.
And if their musical machinations are on show for all to hear, the lyrical inspiration comes from a more specific place, taken from the work of 19th-century novelist Theodor Storm and his book Rider on The Dike from which the band devise metaphors that they use to build bridges between his dark narratives and the modern world.
Like the singles, My Muse and Riders on The Dike before it, Children of The Flood is taken from the duo’s second album, Gone With The Flow which, based on the music that it has so far spawned, is promising to be a musically unique, lyrically deep and thoroughly rewarding affair.
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[…] Para Lia makes fascinating music, and I mean that in the most literal of senses. I find it fascinating, for example, how so many sonic touchstones and musical references are woven through their music, yet the result is totally unique. References that walk a fine line between the bruised and brooding goth sound and something artier, more accessible and altogether in an alt-rock vein—music standing between pop and a dark place… […]