Torsten Larsen
The big payoff
Morningside Records
The subtitle to "The big payoff" should adequately prepare you for the contents of Torsten Larsen's (of Larsen & Furious Jane) album: "A collection of low-fidelity demos 2005-2008". This three-year period covers the time Larsen & Furious Jane spent on their exceptional album "Zen sucker". Demo recordings are typically the territory of diehards, those who want to hear the evolution of an artist's or a band's songwriting from the early drafts to the finished product, and there is an element of this on "The big payoff" -- the bare bones of tracks like "Tisminton" and "Oh, Perrey Reeves" may well prove only beneficial to serious Larsen & Furious Jane converts -- but there is also a decent amount of material that feels misplaced. Opener "Surrender" is among the strongest of these recordings, and one can't help but feel disappointed that it never found its way onto "Zen sucker". It's difficult to be terribly critical of "The big payoff": at its worst the recording acts a rough prequel to a fantastic album and at its best it feels like a collection of solid b-sides. The fact that is offering "The big payoff" for free doesn't hurt either.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
