I have sometimes heard The Lucksmiths accused of being too saccharine and while the saccharine charge of the indictment might be indefensible, I would almost certainly take issue with the "too." I would argue that pop such as this would demand a little sweetness, and I submit that The Lucksmiths have found seemingly the perfect amount for their latest album.Drive-In
The band is from Australia and they exhibit that pleasant pop sensibility shared among other Aussie/New Zealand bands: The Go-Betweens, The Clean, The Bats, and The Chills are some that come to mind, though The Lucksmiths sounds has historically been more spare, with a core of lightly beaten drums, a jangly guitar, and a bass as thick as Koala bear is cute. The first song, "Camera-Shy," is a playful romp through old polaroids and photos which is foremost remarkable for its lyrical wit and literacy, something which can be said of the majority of their songs (it would appear the band actually takes care when constructing lyrics). The guitar line jabs at you like a little cousin begging you to play Chutes and Ladders while the bass dips and swoons almost uncontrollably. Also, I don't think I can name another song which would have the very laudable audacity to use the word "heliolithic." A slower number called "The Sandringham Line" follows. A thumping bass line patiently plods along and the song maintains a constancy until some pleasant female guest vocals take the song by surprise. These first two songs show the archetype of any given Lucksmiths album: you have your fast, upbeat numbers along with your slower, more sombers numbers. By my count, 'Naturaliste' has five upbeat songs and five morose dirges, a nice even split. "But there are eleven songs!" you might exclaim. Well, I will address my arithmetic in a moment. In the meantime, I want you to know that I tend to find the faster songs more compelling as they are more, well, "poppy," for lack of better term (though the last song "Shipwrecked Coast" is truly a gem). Among the notable faster songs, the melody in "Take This Lying Down" is undeniably infectious, while "Midweek Midmorning" has this amazing anthemic horn crescendo at the end which you have to hear to understand. Returning to the matter of the unclassified eleventh song, it falls neatly in the middle of the album as the sixth song called "What You'll Miss" and it is unclassified as either a slow song or a fast song because really it is both. Now I have all types of wild theories and suppositions about the ordering and composition of this album and why "What You'll Miss" falls at the exact midpoint, but I will leave it all aside to tell you how chillingly lovely this fast/slow hybrid song is. Without even trying, it manages to bundle up everything ineffably special about autumn, winter, spring, and summer into one compact pop song, though admittedly the song is solely about winter. I am likely reading far too much into this (again, I might object to the word "too"), but the phenomenon is similar to The Luscksmiths's economy with lyrics: they say a lot with very little.
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