Lost in Translation

This is so sick that I do not know what to say. The Japanese edition of Lucky Soul's debut album The Great Unwanted can be purchased at Cduniverse.

Lucky Soul at Blekingska this Saturday

It is said that a poster says more than a blog post.
 

Review: Lucky Soul - The Great Unwanted

Lucky Soul's debut album The Great Unwanted is released tomorrow and the British pop landscape will change forever. Lucky Soul shake shimmy shimmy shake shimmy shaked their way into our brittle pop hearts with an overheated stroboscope. Last year's summer hit Lips Are Unhappy glittered with the sea. It was only the beginning of a long friendship. Lucky Soul were with me wherever I thrived. Lucky Soul on youtube, at after parties, and played by the DJ at Blekingska before Au Revoir Simone's concert. Lucky Soul were my obvious first choice in the category "best new band" when I summed up last year. Both Lips Are Unhappy and The Great Unwanted deservedly made it into top10 on my list of last year's best songs.

The Great Unwanted is a long parade filled with great melodies and beautiful vocals. The singer Ali Howard is comfortable with both sunshine pop and sweet ballads. I am even more impressed by the sum of the parts. Listen to the changing pace in Ain't Never Been Cool and listen to the end of One Kiss Don't Make a Summer. I get to hear all my favourite Lucky Soul songs, except for Give Me Love, from the second the introducing track Add Your Light to Mine, Baby starts.

Add your light to mine x3
Together we could shine

Lucky Soul's strength is also their only weakness. Sometimes I feel that The Great Unwanted sounds more like a collection than an album. There is not enough depth in the music. That is the most negative thing I have to say about the record. Lucky Soul's pop perfection leaves very little to be desired, and it is hard to blame a band for being specialists at writing hits. Lucky Soul have never pretended to be a band to cry with, and everyone can not be all things at once.

Forget the image-aware The Pipettes, and forget the sixties. Lucky Soul feel more at home in the contemporary pop scene where they have placed a never-ending candy vending machine. The Great Unwanted is one of the ten best records of the 2000s. But it is not a ten. Not when Last Song ends the record instead of the wonderful It's Yours. As if that would make any difference. Song by song, The Great Unwanted will be capable of matching everything that is released this year. Everything.


Nine Out of Ten

My 2006

Concerts
The Au Revoir Simone show on November 17 will be a nice ending to an absolutely amazing year of concerts. In total, I spent 22 nights at concerts this year. It is pretty much given that I did not attend any real festival this summer. You find my concert stories in the right column labelled as Concerts.

01 Language of Flowers - May 27 at Mejeriet, Lund
02 Hello Saferide - March 11 at Mejeriet, Lund
03 Like Honey - September 3 at Mejeriet, Lund
04 Belle and Sebastian - May 13 at Kulturbolaget, Malmö
05 Camera Obscura - October 7 at Kulturbolaget, Malmö


Songs
01 Laurel Music - Winter Slow
L A U R E L M U S I C.
Pop hearts never die! I have heard the future and it sounds wonderful. Laurel Music is worth waiting for.

02 Sambassadeur - Marie
I was convinced that Marie was the song of the year when I wrote my half year list. Marie was actually more than a song to me. Things have changed since then and Marie thus only gets an honorable second place on this list. 

03 Language of Flowers - You're The One
My beloved Language of Flowers do not seem in a hurry with the sequel to Songs About You. They have a lot to live up to. With You're The One Language of Flowers show that they can still deliver spellbinding "girl meets boy"-stories. And I listen to every word.

04 Lucky Soul - Lips Are Unhappy
I heard Lips Are Unhappy in early June and thought it was a good pop song, but it would take another month before I really fell in love. Five months later, I am a little sad that there were no promoters in southern Sweden who wanted to set up a show with Ali Howard's band but you can not have everything you want. SHAKE SHIMMY SHIMMY SHAKE SHIMMY.

05 Katie Goes to Tokyo - Alone
Katie has meant more to me than anyone else this year. She was there when I slides and she was still there when my life collapsed. I try to rebuild it, piece by piece. I no longer know what I want but I know that Katie makes it a little easier to wake up in the morning.

06 Camera Obscura - Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken
07 Hello Saferide - 2006
08 Katie Goes to Tokyo - The Girl Who Ruined Your World
09 Lucky Soul - The Great Unwanted
10 Belle and Sebastian - Another Sunny Day
11 Anna Ternheim - Tribute to Linn
12 Mates of State - Beautiful Dreamer
13 The Magic Numbers - Take a Chance 
14 Firefox AK - City to City
15 The Charade - My Song to You
16 Vapnet - Färjemansleden
17 Headlights - TV
18 Morrissey - You Have Killed Me
19 The Pipettes- Because It's Not Love (But It's Still a Feeling)
20 Those Transatlantics - Whiskey and Tea
21 Acid House King - Keep Your Love by The Loveninjas
22 The Essex Green - Penny and Jack
23 Like Honey - New York
24 The Positions - Back to Me
25 The Tidy Ups - Lack of Nourishment


Albums
There seem to be unspoken rules which determine that a year list shall contain 25 albums. That are just too many albums for me. It is rather pointless to list more records than you will remember when you look back on the year later. I present a top10 this year. I could have done a top15 instead, but no more records than that.

01 Katie Goes to Tokyo - Katie Goes to Tokyo
02 The Positions - Bliss!
03 Those Transatlantics - Knocked Out
04 Mates of State - Bring It Back
05 The Charade - A Real Life Drama
06 My Latest Novel - Wolves
07 Anna Ternheim - Separation Road
08 The Essex Green - Cannibal Sea
09 Marit Larsen - Under the Surface
10 The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes

Also good: The Besties - Singer, The High Violets - To Where You Are, Math and Physics Club - Math and Physics Club, Ms. John Soda - Notes and the Like, The Weepies - Say I Am You, Firefox AK - Madame Madame, Tilly and the Wall - Bottom of the Barrels.
Not evaluated: The Snow Fairies - Voila!, Friday Bridge, Tralala - Is That The Tralala.


EPs
01 Sambassadeur - Coastal Affairs
02 The Tidy Ups - Dizzy Heights
03 Hello Saferide - Would You Let Me Play This EP Ten Times A Day?
04 Gentle Touch - Gentle Touch
05 The Postal Blue - Road to Happiness

Not evaluated: Lucky Soul.


2007
Next year's best album will most likely be the the sequel to This Night and The Nex. I can not see how any other band would compete with Laurel Music. There is a good chance that all bands on the top3 album list will be sorted under the letter "L". Lucky Soul, Like Honey, and Looker all release debut albums. And although I doubt it there is a possibility that even Language of Flowers are recording a new album. Architecture in Helsinki and Sambassadeur are working on new albums. Shelflife Records returns with new releases.

There is a basis for 2007 to become the best record year of the 2000s.

Lucky Soul - Lips Are Unhappy (again!)

I very rarely listen to music when I am out walking, but today I just did. I carried my portable CD player (which lacks shock-proof memory) and a CD-R with Lucky Soul, Mates of State, and Tilly and the Wall. The sun dazzled me when I walked past the hospital to the tune of Give Me Love and I forgot that the reason for my walk actually was that I had to clean up a backstage room. I was band host at last Friday's concert at Blekingska. It went really well and I hope that the other people think so too. I should had cleaned up among the bottles to the tune of The Tidy Ups though.

I have already posted the video of Lips Are Unhappy, but you can not write too much about Lucky Soul. Here is a legal mp3 link with my favourite Lucky Soul song. Their gig at Debaser is by the way rescheduled. They now play on December 15 instead. Also a damn date. Lucky Soul deserve better. 2007 anyone?

Lucky Soul - Lips Are Unhappy

Lucky Soul will play in Stockholm on December 1

Lucky Soul to Sweden!

I am especially happy for Psymon who told me about Ali Howard's wonderful band. I will not afford to go to our capital city and it really breaks my heart because I was more than happy to trade away all shows this autumn for this concert and you probably think that it is pathetic to build a future on a single concert and you are free to feel so but then you have not understood anything at all because there are bands which are worth taking a bullet for and Lucky Soul are a band to die for and this show would change everything. Everything.

I have learned that boys do not cry so I will try to get myself together, but it is so hard. Please someone, give me a dream to build a life on. Just give me love.

Meet Lucky Soul

Meet Lucky Soul. My lips are unhappy withoouuut yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-ooouuu oooooo-oo-oh-oooooo!

It is unreal that music can sound this good. There is another video on youtube in black and white that also is fine, but I think the singer Ali Howard deserves colours.

I hope that there is an alert promoter somewhere that will set up a gig for them in Sweden this fall. My expectations on the album are very high. Lucky Soul's two 7" singles make me want to buy a vinyl player.

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