A new release from the mighty Luxembourg is always as welcome as a large shop doorway in a torrential downpour, and ‘Sick of DIY’ is expectedly no different. Not quite as immediately catchy as ‘Luxembourg vs Great Britain’ or ‘What the Housewives Don’t Tell You’, it still stands head and shoulders above most of the unimaginative and derivative dross latched onto with such gusto by the national music press. Two of life’s greatest mysteries remainL 1) how can one band maintain such consistently high standards of songwriting and performing, and 2) how can that same band remain releasing records on their own label?
Taken from their imminent debut album proper, the title track is one of those lux songs that’s powered along by Rob’s terrifically scything guitar and Alex’s busy synths, David Shah crooning another bedsit vignette of bittersweetness; ‘so many things i started (i know, i know), but left unfinished, now i’m diminished, a little more by each and every one’. Supremely confident and knowingly camp, it’s a rollicking good tune that grows as determinedly as ivy on a country cottage. C’mon someone, give these guys the break they so richly deserve!
The worthy non-album couplings are the more contemplative disco-infused pop of ‘Fingers’ and the rather beautiful voice-and-keyboards ballad ‘Changing Trains’. If well-crafted, intelligent, meaningful, danceable pop is your druthers, you need look no further.
