She takes to the stage beneath a lustrous, whipped cream shock of hair, mesmerising and impossibly blonde. Ali Howard, lead singer of Lucky Soul, has an air of the demure about her, but one that persistently whispers, "We're fabulous". In bright Sixties shift dress, complete with flower in her hair, Ali and her five cohorts are a world away from the school of skin-tight black denim that London's venues have grown so accustomed to. | "Lead singer Ali has an air of the demure about her, but one that persistently whispers, "We're fabulous"..." | | Melanie Spence |
And it's a look that works, by jingo! Tried and tested. But any comparisons to Blondie et al are blown clean out of the water when Howard (think Dusty rather than disruptive) opens her mouth. Possessing a sugar-coated, baby-doll voice, she sweeps and instantly soothes the baying crowd, fresh from the furore of support Johnny Boy, into the more opulent world of powder pop. From glistening openers such as My Brittle Heart, the momentum gathers pace toward the dangerously catchy single Add Your Light to Mine and the album title track, The Great Unwanted. Few can resist shimmying along as the room is transformed into a snow globe of light and magic, complete with twinkling fairy lights and glittering disco-ball. surprisingly ballsy Take the tempo down a notch, mind you, and Lucky Soul have some real spine-tinglers up their sleeves. Baby I'm Broke, a beautiful and tragic end-of-my-tether number, hears Howard's vocal tone soften enough to be comparable to The Beautiful South's Briana Corrigan, while the songwriting excellence of guitarist Andrew Laidlaw comes into its own on the epic instrumentation of the set's fuller songs.
 | | Andrew Laidlaw goes a bit spangley |
And perhaps it's the more epic numbers that Lucky Soul were born to perform. With an encore holding much more than just one more tear-soaked ballad, they launch into a surprisingly ballsy interpretation of Echo and the Bunnymen's Killing Moon. In lesser hands it could have sounded trite and gimmicky, but Lucky Soul make the song their own, replacing the grandiose posturing of the original with a wall-of-sound guitar onslaught that sounds refreshingly incongruous.Ìý Keep your wits about you where this outfit are concerned. This is a band that could have a distinctly disruptive side after all. And that's a touch I like. RELATED LINKS:
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