The second album by
Lauren K. Newman (who prefers to go by
LKN) features three brief noise-rock instrumentals built on feedback and physical manipulations of the sound sources. Sadly, these pieces take up barely three minutes of
In the Leap Year's playing time, which is frustrating because they're the best things on the album. It's not that the rest of
In the Leap Year is bad, simply that most of the actual songs on the album sound enough like other, better artists that it all seems a bit derivative. It doesn't help that the album's longest song, the ten-plus-minute "Sarah, I Adore You," is the worst offender in this regard, sounding like an outtake from
PJ Harvey's blues pastiche album
To Bring You My Love with a guest guitar solo from
Television's
Richard Lloyd. With a better experiment-to-song ratio,
In the Leap Year would be a far more appealing record.