The one thing that this most groovesome cut from Camden four-piece tells me is that the old adage “it ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it” is more than just a throw-away saying. Let me explain. If you start pulling at “Lucky Jim’s” sonic threads, you start unravelling everything from indie smarts to 60’s garage rock and roll grooves, post-punky attitudes to nostalgic beat- pop accessibility.
So what? I hear you ask. Well, wasn’t that the blueprint for Britpop? At least in the early days. So, isn’t this what that scene should have sounded like all along? Oh, boy, did we miss a trick? Imagine if, instead of bands like Oasis repackaging overly familiar T-Rex riffs and Dodgy trying to be the new Monkees, Britpop had actually been driven by such heads-down, no-nonsense, mindful punky-mutant-blues as this. But maybe it is for the best that we have had to wait this long or such a great sound, as it makes its arrival all the more sweet.
“Lucky Jim” is an immense song, the spirit of rock and roll put to shamanic beats, pop formats ripped to shreds and rebuilt in an anagram of themselves, surges of chorus energy giving way to arabesque ragga, the echo of George Michael’s “Faith” running headlong into The Damned’s garage band, cosmic punk explosion that perfectly manifested itself as “Neat Neat Neat” to spectacular effect.
What’s not to love? What indeed?
