This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
Lucky Strikes
The Exile And The Sea
(Harbour Songs)
5 Stars
The Lucky Strikes have surely left splendid isolation behind with this, their fourth album.
Southend's finest have delved into the rich vein of local Thames history for The Exile And The Sea - stories of fishermen, ghosts, mutineers, deserters, smugglers and poets are all given a new lease of life and even the Southend pier fire in 2005 is retold in The Beast Burnt Down.
The slow track Ballet Shoes is a beautifully delivered tale of regret and loss before the epic Goldspring kicks in, the story of a press-ganged local who escaped the Nore naval mutiny of 1797 to live to a ripe old age.
With literate lyrics, driving rhythm, subtle fiddle, strong keyboards and an unfeasibly talented frontman in Matthew Boulter, the Strikes have got it in spades.
They're the best thing to come out of Southend since Rossi's ice-cream. My album of the year.
Brian Denny
