Li Li Can't Drive

Not subscribing to any one genre, Li Li Can’t Drive’s latest album, Aloha From Kentucky, touches on everything from alt country to electronica. Li Li, a two-member band from Louisville, keeps it simple with steady beats and a rustic voice.

The lyrics are consistently good. The strong words from “Honor” are most notable: Looks like you’ll be spending that dollar hanging up on the wall/looks like you can’t stay clean/clean at all. From substance abuse to sinners and war, the album covers a number of subjects. “Time Will Tell” shows what Li Li can do instrumentally, but maintains the album’s overall simplicity: few tempo changes, steady beats.

Recorded in a basement, Aloha’s sound is scratchy, which can leave the lyrics sometimes lost behind the music. Despite the substandard sound, it is not hard to find a good song on the album: Quality chill-out music marked by a few standouts.—Caitlin Bowling
- LEO

Do you like Modest Mouse? Li Li Can’t Drive is like Modest Mouse. A lot. While Li Li manages, for the most part, to replicate the jangly, distorted guitars and deeply inflected vocals, the band struggles to strike the delicate balance between reckless abandon and musical competence that Modest Mouse generally accomplishes.

At other times, Li Li sounds more like a lame high school jam band. You remember those guys who thought they were real badasses because they had distortion pedals? These are those guys on a label. They have energy and drive, they just don’t have anywhere to put it. While Ignore Snore Snore has its moments where these dissonant elements come together, it often dissolves into something raucous but ultimately uninteresting.
- Louisville Eccentric Observer