Twesta presents... Lucky Soul

"Listen to on repeat...High quality pop. Lovely" – Popjustice – Song Of The Day

Lucky Soul release new single, Woah Billy! on April 12th, an imagined conversation with Billy Bragg brought to vivid life by the honey-tones of singer Ali Howard. It begins with the controlled distortion of an electric guitar, a teasing piano-riff, then once the chorus kicks in there’s no going back, wave after wave of pop-melody, chorus follows chorus, deceptively simple sounding but it’s a song that stays with you, catches your imagination.
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Following on from their internationally acclaimed debut The Great Unwanted, Lucky Soul have taken the gloves off. On new album A Coming of Age – the shameless love for pure melody remains, but any hint of knowing pastiche has been replaced with big, confident, lean production; it’s a soaring album of modern pop – music for a new decade.

But more than that there’s lyrical wit, the swirl of complex emotions and a claret splash of old-fashioned tortured genius. These may sound, on the face of it, like twelve classic love songs – but listen a bit more carefully; there’s something else going on: songwriter Andrew Laidlaw is a dark soul, and beneath the silvery arrangements lurk sentiments that make Leonard Cohen look like Miley Cyrus.

Recorded in New York with Victor Van Vugt and put together with a stellar cast of some 20 collaborators who’ve worked with everyone from Brian Wilson to The Noisettes, Nick Cave to Arthur Lee, it is an album of bittersweet heartbreak married to dramatic pop melodies. Songs with Soul.

Lucky Soul came together in a serendipitous moment when Ali Howard, scouring the local newspapers for a new flat and a new beginning, chanced upon Andrew Laidlaw’s ad for a singer - ‘no divas, no faux-American accents’. The resulting combination of Ali’s sweet, pure vocals with Andrew Laidlaw’s love-struck songs has proved irresistible.

Their debut album, The Great Unwanted was released in 2007 on their own label, Ruffa Lane to widespread critical acclaim, TV commercials, the Japanese Top Ten and 50,000 album sales.
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Press reaction to Lucky Soul’s 2007 debut ‘The Great Unwanted’

“An immediate classic” Independent on Sunday 5/5

“Pop at its most glorious and heartbreaking” Metro 5/5 - Album of the Week

“Performs the rare feat of meticulously acknowledging its inspirations while also transcending them” Uncut 4/5

“A glorious, over-romanticised racket” Guardian 4/5

“Grand, unabashed pop” Pitchfork 8.0

“Excellent” Times 4/5