Love Begotten – Ugly Dirty Poor

Love Begotten, one of the older young bands that are still together and pushing heavy in the River Valley/Oklahoma scene. Personally, they are and always have been my favorite local band to watch live and listen to on record. With the new album “Ugly Dirty Poor”, you get everything that Love Begotten brings to the table, raw emotion and no filter to anything they do. As much as I hate to make references to older bands, if you dig that old “Bless The Martyr, Kiss The Child” Norma Jean, this album and this band is for you. Only one huge difference though, Love Begotten will have your attention from the second you hit the play button on whatever device you’re listening on. Three words: UGLY. DIRTY. POOR!

Normally I go track by track, but when an album has literally NOTHING wrong with it, what’s the point in picking and judging each track individually, right? I can tell you this though, as long as I’ve known these dudes and what they do, they have never put out something so aggressive and in your face as this. “Ugly Dirty Poor” is the definition of Arkansas/Oklahoma music that needs to be loved and never overlooked. A band that has overcome incredible odds with old members and new ones joining or even rejoining, Love Begotten has writing tunes down to a science. Some of the tracks on here I do favor over others but that, by no means, means that I dislike any of the other tracks. Some of the ones that stand out heavy to me are “Eyes”, mainly for the fact that the lyrics are powerful as hell. At the start of the song, Micah (lead vocalist) screams:

I’d rather be a train wreck that has forgiveness than an illusionist that has nothing

If that doesn’t speak volumes to you and that horrible soul you have, I’m not sure what else will. The next track that I absolutely love is “0000” and I have a couple reasons for why it’s adored by my heart. First off, it’s listed as one of the official Oklahoma songs, pretty damn intense if you ask me since some of those songs are classics on that list. Second, the fact that the build around the 1 minute and 45 second mark is phenomenal when you have a skull crushing breakdown after it; pure magic in my eyes. One of my other favorite tracks on the album has to be “Living, Breathing, Expressing”, purely for the reason that it has that southern, gritty, let’s-go-play-in-the-mud type of feel. The whole track is filled with structure and just amazing chords but what makes me love this track so completely is the 25 second build around the 1 minute an 30 second mark. If you don’t know me, you won’t know that I hate unoriginal breakdowns but this breakdown is the definition of what a breakdown should sound like. It has heart, guts and all the inner organs a piece of music needs. If I’m recommending local artist to others, the first one I’m spitting out is Love Begotten because without these dudes, the local River Valley scene would be filled with bands that all sound the same.

Let’s face it, if we didn’t have bands that didn’t give a shit, we would live in a world full of the same old music, day in and day out. Love Begotten is a breath of fresh air that many ears need but will overlook because they don’t like the whole “southern” feel. I’m here to tell you right now, grab a seat and make sure you cover up because these dudes are here to stay, at least I hope so because shit would be horrible without them. Huge props to the guys in the band: Micah, Patrick, Sean and David. Without you guys putting out records like this, I feel like a ton of kids would have a lost and hopeless future. Check out the links below for EVERYTHING you need when it comes to Love Begotten and remember, we may be ugly, we may be dirty, we may be poor but we have souls as rich as the skies.

Official Youtube. Official Facebook. Official Twitter. Buy their shit here.