Release Date: April 9, 2007
Label: Vital
There’s been a welcome resurgence of the Phil Spector 60’s sound of late. The Pipettes perfected it with their single Pullshapes, Johnny Boy matured it with the soaring You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve, and now Lucky Soul have contemporized it with their debut, The Great Unwanted.
Earlier singles Lips Are Unhappy and Ain’t Never Been Cool hinted at the greatness of this English band… a sort of Ronettes meets the Cardigans sound that seemed quite unstoppable. Their full length debut is not quite the masterpiece that it first seemed it would be, but it is nonetheless an exercise in fantastic retro pop. Bouncy new single Add Your Light To Mine, Baby opens the album on an uptempo note, followed by the wistful One Kiss Don’t Make A Summer and the pure 60’s bliss of Struck Dumb. The best songs on here, though, are the aforementioned singles, although the pounding title track does come close. Unfortunately, there are also a few missteps. Get Outta Town tries to be much more fun than it is, while It’s Yours and Last Song offer a bit of a snooze-fest as a closer. In other words, the album could benefit from just a little bit of pruning.
Still, the sound is remarkably consistent without becoming tiring and the whole thing sounds like a collection of could-be singles, even though they might have to travel back forty years or so to become real hits. But, if you’re looking for an album to soundtrack your barbeques this summer, you couldn‘t do much better than The Great Unwanted. B
Key Tracks: Lips Are Unhappy, Ain’t Never Been Cool, The Great Unwanted
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