Album review: Lucas Renney - 'Strange Glory' (Brille)

You’ve heard of the pink pound. Now, produced by Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde, with session backing from Midlake’s rhythm section, comes a record in pursuit of the kind of beige pennies people who wear tank tops spend on ATP tickets. Or not. Like a hand grenade hidden in mashed potato, the genius – and make no mistake, songs such as ‘These Same Stars’ are genius – of this singer-songwriter’s debut, is that beneath the plucked acoustic melodies and above the lush Cohen-esque instrumentation, is a brutal, barbed wit. In layman’s terms, ‘How I Wanted You’ is basically about wanting to fuck someone else more than the person you’re actually fucking. It’s that kind of dank emotional honesty that will garner a few quid of the metallic stuff.

James McMahon

Click here to get your copy of Lucas Renney's 'Strange Glory' from the Rough Trade shop.

9 out of 10