Review: Luxury Stranger – 'Face'

LUXURY STRANGER 

'Face' 

AF-MUSIC 

Inhabiting a shady spot between glammed-up post-punk and sheer grungy grit, Luxury Stranger have fast made a respectable name for themselves in the UK indie scene. Despite the many line-up changes since their inception, the band have proven their mettle with albums such as 'Desolation' and 'Commitment And Discipline'. Now their new EP, 'Face' aims to bridge the gap with four new songs and a remix of 'Nothing Holy'.

The EP channels the the morbid essence of The Cure's 'Pornography' era, mixing it with the pleading despair of Pearl Jam and mixing in some Killing Joke style madness for added effect. The title track kicks things off nicely with it's very straight and no nonsense 80s vibe. While 'Feelings' wanders into grungier waters as Simon York does his best Eddie Vedder meets Paul Weller impression over a solid, chugging bassline. 'She Takes My Soul And Wipes It Clean' is a nice change of pace though, again in 90's Paul Weller mode with a somewhat mournful Joy Division twist, it is a very nice centrepiece. Whereas grounded gets things nice and upbeat once again, much in the same vein of the opening track. There's nothing to complicated or flashy here, just simple and effective songwriting.

The most interesting track here has to be the remix of 'Nothing Holy', the band's last single. With the hard and dirty electronic elements perfectly complementing the dreamy indie underneath.

This is a rather nice EP. There isn't much in the way of exciting new developments to the band's overall sound. But it is well produced and each song exhibits a strong and catchy presence that will appeal to not only established fans, but those new to the band as well.

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