From the stuttering snare drum notes that begin opener "Add Your Light to Mine, Baby," it's clear that Lucky Soul stands poised to revitalize the charming sounds of 1950s-era pop. Thankfully, the U.K. sextet--singer Ali Howard, guitarists Ivor Sims and Andrew Laidlaw, keyboardist Malcolm Young, bassist Toby Fogell, and drummer Nathaniel Perkins--plies its throwback aesthetic without a shred of the veiled insincerity endemic to all forms of musical nostalgia. Instead, Laidlaw's lush arrangements play less like studied reverence than inspired, single-handed attempts to reinvigorate the art of pop orchestration. (Particularly stunning horn work adorns the bombastic "Get Outta Town!") Howard's voice recalls any number of forgone antecedents and de rigueur indie contemporaries, from Petula Clark and Sandy Shaw, to El Perro del Mar (Sarah Assbring) and the Concretes' Victoria Bergsman. But just when the whole endeavor treads a hair's breadth from precious, "Ain't Never Been Cool" dissolves any notion of the band's pretensions in a two-and-a-half-minute slab of celebratory, dance-inducing apologetics. Lyrically, these 13 songs seem disproportionately obsessed with kissing, but then, if there's one thing Lucky Soul's music was tailor-made for, it's gettin' lucky. Try it. --Jason Kirk
get it
buy it
