ALBUM REVIEW: More Than This – The Luka State
If you look somewhere between the cities of Manchester and Liverpool you might stumble upon THE LUKA STATE, who’re preaching working-class frustrations from the small town of Winsford. With their debut album Fall In Fall Out already under their belt, they’ve quickly returned in just two years with their rawest work so far; More Than This. The title itself distils the message behind the album, to unforgivingly want more and allow yourself to desire. Their underdog attitude, fuelled by their hometown, has brought them this far and More Than This will show us how much further it can take them.
What’s on offer is simple; forceful indie rock, swagger bursting at the seams of each track and lyrics that storm forward with catharsis. Opener Bring Us Down details the tooth and nail dog fights of the working class attempting to rise up, a sentiment shared by most workers at the minute. Soaking in determination and backed up with triumphant riffs, the quartet start a common theme throughout the album. Oxygen Mask follows up with a get to the point attitude, the urgency is overwhelming and makes use of what it feels like to be running for your life. Frontman Conrad Ellis unleashes burning anger and bares his teeth for the first time on the bridge, and it goes much further than saying “this boils my piss”.
Title track More Than This articulates what it’s like to be on your last legs, struggling to stand any longer with people relying on you. Lyrically, it resonates heavily with the fears of any member of the working class, as its fast tempo annotates how quickly things creep up on you. Being late on rent, can’t feed the family, someone won’t let you see your kids, you’ve got to try harder than everyone else — the sentiment is delivered snappily to drive things home. Tightrope feels like a sibling track to the prior, offering an alternative way forward, risk it all and let it burn. It’s loaded full of adrenaline which throws all of the previous worries away and is the peak moment of catharsis.
Despite the bulk of the album feeling very ‘all or nothing’ and full of bravado, there are moments of calm to be found, like in Swimming Backwards, which is full of pining for someone to love but with the edge taken off with its boyish energy. The same can be said for Two Worlds Apart; to an extent neither of the tracks fit the brief, reminding you that indie bands can’t help but throw an element of romance into their music, even if it’s detrimental.
None of this is jolly indie rock, for which we can be thankful to THE LUKA STATE for not saturating that trope any further; instead they drive home what a lot of the working class indie bands forget to do — the collective struggle. “I’ve drunk eight pints and now I’m at your door” – just don’t do it. More Than This is an admirable yet subtle venture that many of their peers could take plenty of notes from.
Rating: 7/10
More Than This is out now via self-release.
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