Some records describe the world just as it is, leaving you staring at it. (Complimentary) doesn’t do that. The second EP by Luxury Nan Smell, a Birmingham trio comprising Rose Davies, Emily Doyle, and Jacob Spink, asks the same question from four different angles: what do you do when the system is designed to keep you still? Do you adapt, wither away or burn it down?
The answer isn’t simple. Trust me, neither is the record.
‘Bones (the Musical)’ opens with a bang. Angular, heavy riffs, reminiscent of Fugazi in rhythm and Drive Like Jehu in density, give way to Davies reciting with furious clarity about the pressure to conform. Then the chorus hits with a memorable hook — ‘sycophant pleaser, dickhead appeaser’ — and the intensity doesn’t let up.
‘Unarranged Overdraft’ is unexpected: a fluid, almost danceable track with a building melody that hits harder. In just over two minutes, there’s sharp tapping, shouted verses, financial anxiety and the feeling that the future is shrinking. ‘Staying the Same Thing Forever is Death’ is the centrepiece of the EP, as well as its most ambitious track. Beginning with the kind of melancholic calm Pile do so well, it gradually builds in intensity until it reaches a dense post-hardcore sound. It then loops back on itself, perfectly capturing its message: staying the same is death, but breaking free isn’t automatic either. The structure doesn’t quite come full circle. And that’s the beauty of it.
‘Bonfire Night 2’ brings the EP to a more direct close with a collective, unambiguous statement. Crackling riffs and voices echoing one another with the same collective energy as Dog Park Dissidents – “the boundaries built to protect yourself create the cage where you’ll remain” – and lyrics that transform determinism into a cage that must be broken. And there it is.
(Complimentary) doesn’t give you the answer. It leaves you right there, where you have to find it yourself. From then on, it’s not so easy to look the other way.
Luxury Nan Smell play LOUD WOMEN at the Lady Luck, Canterbury this Sunday 19 April – free entry
Follow Luxury Nan Smell on Instagram | YouTube | Bandcamp