Album Review: L.A. Takedown’s “II” Is Miami Vice Meets Planet Earth

I cannot say that I have ever received an album with instructions on how to listen. Yet, if anybody knows how they want their record to be played and how it can be most enjoyed, it is the artist. Synth-pop instrumentalists ,L.A. Takedown’s II has transformed a seemingly psychedelic record into a sonic, psychedelic pill; meant to be taken, relished, and visually drifting according to the band’s set of rules: 

1) Turn down the lights, fire up a doobie, and get into this record.

2) Drive out on a desert road in the dead of night, roll down the windows, turn the heater on juuust enough, and blast this album.
3) Repeat option #2 but along a coastal highway instead.
4) Get some headphones on and suspiciously stake out a bank. (Please don’t actually commit any crimes.)
5) Have a special somebody over, light some candles, pour a couple glasses of red, turn on this album and see where the evening goes.
6) Put this album on, mute your TV, and watch the Planet Earth series.
7) Put this album on and think of things to do while listening to this album.

I, particularly, enjoy and agree with instruction number 6. L.A. Takedown’s II is 30 minutes of sounds that actually feel like Miami Vice took over Planet Earth and made a soundtrack. There is an oceanic vibrance that undercurrents songs like, “L.A. Blue”, “Heat Wave” and “Us” that actually do make you envision the life of sea animals swimming and surviving the Deep Blue Sea.  Yet, like Miami Vice, there is a cool suaveness to L.A. Takedown’s instrumentals that makes something like survival appear like an exuberant adventure. No one imagines the life of a shark or a seal as one to be lived and cherished, but L.A. Takedown is a record that, whether purposefully or not, makes nature sound playful and prosperous. You can see such an aura in their set of rules. From staking out a bank to driving down a desert and observing the night sky, whether it is in mischief or universal mystery, II builds a world that you want to be apart of. “City Of Glass”, “Dose”, and “The Last Thing” are mystical in their voluminous, wandering guitar melodies. Like the ocean and desert, these are two locales that are known as places to leave a human stranded, which sound like a nightmare. Yet, their beauty is untouchable and by arranging their chords and keys to debilitate fear and amp up listeners’ adventurous bravery, L.A. Takedown’s II is an album to lie down, press play, and dream up a fantastical world that is romantic in vision and rolling in spirit. For More Information L.A. Takedown and To Buy II on May 12 Click Here.