Wait... What do I hear? Radiohead? Is this Thom Yorke, and
the music... Imagine Radiohead singing their song "Creep" with new
lyrics, the lyrics from the song "Not so grand", featured on this
record as the third song. Even the lyrics have something in common: just compare
"I'm a creep" with "Am I a lover of being a failure or just a
failure at being a lover".
Apart from this resemblance, I consider this
album as one of the best power-pop-albums in the history of Tooth & Nail...
Being an American band, they have a typical British touch in most of the songs
on this album... I hear Oasis, Pavement, Blur, Radiohead, Embrace... But this
pot-pourri of bands is just an attempt to describe the band, because most of all
Luxury is a band with very talented musicians, a terrific singer and good skills
in song-writing. The lyrics are about life, pride ("King Me"), society
("Metropolitan") and faith ("The Glory"). Sometimes straight
in the lyrics, sometimes a bit more poetic... This certainly is an album to
listen to with your headphones on and your eyes closed. Just let Luxury take
over your mind and lead you to waterfalls of melody and mountains of powerful
rock-music. Perfect guitar-parts in for example "Red Mascara" ( a bit
like Red Hot Chili Pepper's song "Californication" ), great drum-parts
in Not So Grand... Starting with some up-tempo power-pop-songs the last 4 songs
of the record have more acoustic instruments, like an acoustic guitar, a piano
and a violin.
Karel Smouter
for