Name: Return to Love
Brand: Lvl Up

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

CD 71166 S

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

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Format Music US

Limited edition

Release date

2016-09-23

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Sub P­op

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

098787116625

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Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Lvl Up

Genre US

Rock-Pop

Label US

Sub Pop Records

"Hidden Driver," the opening track of LVL UP's third album and Sub Pop debut Return to Love, never stops moving. What starts with unassuming guitars and vocals adds new lines, depths, and intensity, until its unrestrained, triumphant finish. "God is peeking, softly speaking," repeats the chorus, working through the relationship between spirituality and creative inspiration, and introducing a band that is always pushing further. LVL UP — guitarists Mike Caridi and Dave Benton, bassist Nick Corbo, and drummer Greg Rutkin — is a true collaboration, a band that takes the stylistically distinct ideas of four members and brings them togeth- er into something new. Caridi, Benton, and Corbo write and sing equally, bringing their work to the group to be fully realized, resulting in an album built on different perspectives but a common drive. "We have very different inspirations across the board," says Benton, noting his own admiration for the writer and documentarian Astra Taylor, Corbo's interest in the mystical and the occult, and Caridi's attention to personal storytelling. The music itself grows from a shared melodic and experimental sensibility, as well as a nod to iconic influences like Neutral Milk Hotel and Mount Eerie. LVL UP was formed in 2011 at SUNY Purchase as a recording project between Caridi, Benton, and their friend Ben Smith, with the original intention of releasing a split cassette with Corbo's then-solo material. They instead released that album, Space Brothers, as one band, and Rutkin joined shortly afterwards for the group's first show. Smith left the band for personal reasons just before the release of second album Hoodwink'd, a joint release on Caridi and Benton's label Double Double Whammy and Exploding in Sound. DDW also put out records from other artists in the tight-knit community that launched the band. Also part of that university community was Return to Love's producer Mike Ditrio, who mixed LVL UP's previous records and "was basically a fifth member of the band," says Corbo. "He played a huge role in developing the sound, without butting in too much. He also navigated our personal dynamic really nicely."

Return to Love

Music US