(Credits: Far Out / The La’s)
Sun 8 February 2026 8:00, UK
When you study the bigger picture of how The La’s disrupted the rock scene, it makes more sense why they only put out one album.
It takes a lot to make an impact with one album, especially a debut, but given that the only album they released managed to withstand the test of endurance more than many of their peers, they must have been onto something. However, led by frontman Lee Mavers, The La’s were facing an uphill battle since formation, one that would ultimately prove to be too rough for both progression and sustainability.
One of the culprits for this struggle was over-perfectionism, and as Mavers once said himself, his own striving for flawless excellence was often more of a hindrance than an advantage, having once noted, “It gets clearer, and it gets vaguer… Before every dawn, there’s a night; before every calm, there’s a storm… It’s like, the closer you get to perfection, the closer you get to imperfection, simple as.”
It could be that the success of their first string of songs, including the iconic ‘There She Goes’, as well as a Morrissey-approved first single, ‘Way Out’, and ‘Come in Come Out’ and ‘Who Knows’, introduced a different kind of pressure that increased the perfectionism Mavers already knew he had. After all, with their 1990 record, they launched a new sound of indie rock, bridging the gap between the older, familiar sounds of the British invasion with a fresher, more modern flavour.
But it took a while to get there, with material being scrapped again and again in the years prior, partly because Mavers wasn’t satisfied with any of their producers, but mainly because he was striving for a specific sound. And for whatever reason, it took three long years to find it.
Did The La’s ever begin work on a second record?
Following their debut and a string of live dates, The La’s slowly started falling apart, beginning with John Power’s departure in 1991. Mainly, he left because he was fed up with facing the same material he’d played since 1986, and instead formed the band Cast a year later for a fresh start.
The following years were fairly sporadic for the remaining members. Mavers started working on new material alone in the mid-to-late 1990s, an absence that didn’t go unnoticed by the media at the time – hence his reflections on his own perfectionism and how it ultimately came at the detriment of the La’s potential.
The closest thing to a follow-up came after Mavers reconnected with founding member Mike Badger at the tail-end of the decade, and the pair started working together on a project that would eventually form two compilation albums of early demos and recordings called Lost La’s 1984–1986: Breakloose and Lost La’s 1986–1987: Callin’ All.
A few years later, after rejoining Mavers for a reunion, Power then teased that Mavers was working on a potential second album, though his words weren’t especially promising as to when said album would arrive – if at all. He said that his bandmate was “tinkering with something” but that the release date remains elusive, saying, “I can’t tell you where and when, ’cause whatever he does, whether it’s in this lifetime or the next, it can’t be rushed.” He said this in 2006.
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