Luxury
Luxury
Reviewed by J. Edward Keyes
"Here I am, no fame, no fortune, only palm in hand," moans Lee Bozeman in the opening bars of "Conquer & Destroy." After two records that met with moderate success, Luxury's third outing finds Bozeman taking stock of gains and losses, both personal and universal. Though not as moribund as the death-shrouded the latest & the greatest, Luxury still finds time to revel in the uncertainties of mortality.
Though touted as a comeback record, much of Luxury feels like a band going through the motions. Where Bozeman and company formerly strutted their stuff with true Britpop cocky panache, the uptempo numbers on the eponymous release seem a bit murky. "When Those That Are Not Become Those That Are," which boasts such wry contrapositions as Calendar for the fat girl/ Nobel for retard, is mired in swampy guitar chops, as is the unusually direct "Sweet God." Often sounding like an amped-up Smiths, Luxury needs to learn how to manage the former's melodic gracefulness in their stimulated excursions.
The strongest numbers on Luxury are the most sedate. "Mincemeat," one of the record's many moments that finds Bozeman licking his wounds, builds to a euphoric orchestral swell, raising goosebumps as it raises volume. "Lackluster" ponders both a spirit and universe out of joint. Over delicate guitar and plinking xylophone, Bozeman muses, "The stars are out of line tonight/ Orion seems confused/ What's a boy like me supposed to do?"
It is this very tension created by a world disjointed that colors the band's more successful numbers. While Luxury finds rest during the eulogistic "Robed in Light" (When I am finally alive/ Perfect immortal divinized), the record ends in uncertainty. "To You Who Gave Me Hope & Were My Light" concludes with the mournful refrain I would that I were made new. It is a sobering acknowledgement that resurrection comes daily, and that often those who give hope are the same ones that steal it away. It is this sort of irony in which Luxury finds inspiration.