The Lucksmiths – First Frost

Melbourne's The Lucksmiths are the foremost of a number of Australian bands (see also: Darren Hanlon, The Cat's Miaow, the Mabels) keeping alive the flame lit by the Go-Betweens of the style Robert Forster and Grant McLennan labelled "that striped sunlight sound" - wistful melodies, lyrically strong with a tinge of doomed romanticism. So much an institution of the scene that they've put out two rarities collections, one a double set, their ninth studio album sees no reason to change its core ways of understated, deeply likeable old school indie, more polished than the shamblers, no concessions given to allow Zane Lowe airplay. That longtime home of the perfect pop non-hits Fortuna Pop! are putting the album out in Britain is no surprise.That said, while First Frost gives moving on from bedroom romanticism a go it can't quite match up to their last studio effort, 2005's Warmer Corners, an inevitably widely ignored collection that just about perfected their craft. Trying to improve on such Aus-pop perfection inevitably ends in slight letdown, as almost too perfect in stylistic conception songs like 'Good Light', with its lightweight, jangly mostly acoustic summery strumming, yearning lyrical themes and subtle horns, are. Of the band's four songwriters it's guitarist Marty Donald who again comes up trumps, with that song and album highspot 'A Sobering Thought (Just When One Was Needed)', detailing drunken swimming pool escapades to a glam beat and choral call-and-response chorus, plus the country-flecked acoustics and distant strings of 'California In Popular Song', where the unshowy, quiet nobility of vocalist/drummer Tali white is at its most effective.What's always most impressive with the Lucksmiths is the area where a few of their contemporaries have fallen short, not only in having multiple songwriters turning out an album that is largely of a piece but in ensuring such melodically crafted, often Smiths recalling (this the band who have released a song entitled 'There Is a Boy That Never Goes Out') introspection doesn't lapse into autopilot and make them an easily dismissable one trick pony. They're not afraid to extend out of their previously drawn comfort zone, so the guitars do get edgier than they've previously displayed and at points positively reverb-happy, while the colliery brass lament of 'The National Mitten Registry' facilitates the almost unthinkable act of making lachrymosity out of an extended metaphor based on lost gloves (unless it is actually about lost gloves, of course, in which case it's potentially the twee-est thing you've ever heard) Unfortunately it's let down by a pronounced dip from just after midway where, bar the subtle string-backed repudiation of the city of 'Pines' and 'Up with The Sun' being taken over halfway through by uncharacteristic fuzzy guitar, things level out and veer too close to the territory of the Magic Numbers and the Walkabouts, and right at the end a few uncalled for classic rock shapes, as if such apparently effortless songsmithery had actually become too easy for them.The Lucksmiths may not exhibit the flamboyancy and wide ranging scope of immediate touchstones the Go-Betweens and Belle & Sebastian, and previous two albums Naturaliste and the aforementioned Warmer Corners would be better places to start, but First Frost retains that lightness of touch towards their subjects and abilities that marks them well out from the crowd, by turns heartbreaking and optimistic. More of the same, but until it hits the wall that's not always such a bad thing. 71%The Lucksmiths on Myspace