Luck & Senses

New York almost seems like a million miles away from where I sit right now and to be honest (quick google map check) it’s not far off actually. So when a slice of the five famous boroughs, in the form of female fronted Luck & Senses lands on my desk, I’m all too happy to give it a listen and let it transport me to a smokey (pre smoking ban), dim lit, Jazz bar where their unique, soulful jazz fills the air. Now the setting I imagined may be a little over the top so let’s put romantic imagery and New York lusting aside for the minute because Speed Of Life is much, much more than a simple, slightly naive, daydream.

The whole album is bursting with New York Coolness whilst still managing to maintain an endearing charm that invites you in with every beat. Tracks like I’ll Take Your Word has mouth-watering guitar tone that will take your knees out from underneath you, whilst the driving rhythms of, title track, Speed Of Life get you up and dancing before you’ve had a chance to realise you’re out of your seat and Getting up, Getting Out, Getting On introduces horns to brilliant effect. You’d almost expect there to be a larger brass presence in a band like Luck & Senses, but they use it t more sparingly. Which is why it works strangely, they’ve obviously taken influence from their predecessors but manage to mix things up a bit with their instrumentation, showing you don’t have to adhere to the pre-cast mould of a particular band. Other influences also creep into the album with If You Care, it has a reggae like a beat that meanders through the song, whilst other tracks cleverly introduce a pop like hook to keep your interest and have those chorus’ implanted on your ear drums long after you’ve switched off. The kind of memorability that will only have listeners going back for more.

Luck & Senses are continuing to prove why New York is drenched in musical history and soon I think they will have graduated from my nostalgic dream of a dim lit bar to festival stages, bigger venues and much more! Speed Of Life is available through Bandcamp as ‘name your price’ this one album you should add to your downloads.
- MRU Magazine