Album Review: The Luka State – The Price Of Education
The Price Of Education
Released June 8th 2015
Words: Gary Lambert
Opening up with a short blast of electro with hints of Tim Hecker in shortened format does not prepare you in any way possible for the hook and chorus laden crackers that lie ahead in The Luka States’ The Price of Education. There is a certain snobbishness to music fandom where music designed to entertain people is viewed as something we should sneer at instead of celebrating. Well this mini-album is the kind of record which makes you think otherwise. For this listener it brings great memories of bands like Ocean Colour Scene and Embrace who committed the sins of verse-chorus-verse in the late nineties and were forever doomed to be neither awkward or bombastic enough, but happened to sell lots of records and play some great gigs and be part of peoples’ lives. There is just the hint though of something else to The Price of Education. A softening to the record from a dash of a North American influence – at least to my ear.
First track proper, The Believer, is a real hitter straight out of the hutch. The repeated woah-oh-oh is made for entertaining at a gig and getting the crowd joining in without having to remember any lyrics. Don’t sneer, it’s a great tactic if you want people to have a good time. The guitars then crank up for Hangin Around, but still stay towards the indie end of the indie rock spectrum.
The peak of the release is definitely track four, Feed Your Soul, this starts in a whirl of distortion and subtle background additions like I think a glockenspiel before kicking off a stomping, snarling guitar and vocal combo. If I was eighteen again, this song would be part of the soundtrack of my life. It makes your heart beat like a bassline and you want to mosh up and down in the rain.
After that humdinger the songs return to a less edgy but still good indie rock vibe with Daytime TV sounding as safe as could be without ever becoming dull and indeed the final track Bring This All Together does touch those better levels, but it feels a bit safe from then in like the band are sticking to the formula rather than indulging the glint in their eye. That glint though might just be worth indulging a bit more.
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