The Lucksmiths – First Frost

This is album number eleven for the Lucksmiths and the quality shows no sign of letting up.
It starts with The Town & The Hills, a whimsical tune with boy-ish sounding vocals and a carefree air, complete with some sweet brass to lead the song out. Good Light is more upbeat, as the guitar chips out a tune. A Sobering Thought is a coy cousin to Belle & Sebastian’s The Boy With The Arab Strap, while California In Popular Song has twinkling folky guitar and vocally is a sigh to Californian times. South-East Coastal Rendezvous is a lot like their closest neighbours, Belle & Sebastian with a fuzzy warm feel.
The National Mitten Registry is beautiful, sparse and sombre, the choral group singing and short lines make it sound like a beautiful wake. Day Three Of Five manages to be melancholic and chirpy at the same time and Never & Always is what the band do best, cracking pop like The Go-Betweens, but with an even more romantic lilt. Lament Of The Chiming Wedgebill is a lovely male/female country duet while How We Met is downbeat, minimal and achingly sad and Song Of The Undersea and Up With The Sun are simply cool pop songs. Pines is laid back, melancholic and rather sad. Quite simply, this is the best form of guitar derived pop imaginable.

First Frost is released on 8th December on Fortuna Pop!
The Lucksmiths website is here.