Gary Steel
“THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY” – A SHORT SERIES OF 2014 ALBUM REVIEWS THAT NEVER SAW THE LIGHT OF DAY, FOR SOME REASON.
IVY ROSSITER’S 2012 debut as Luckless hovered on the edge of greatness, with its wide-screen recording matching her haunting songs and preternaturally mournful voice. Well, if you thought her outlook dismal before, try the 11 songs here, which interrogate her emotional state after the dissolution of a relationship, and chart her move from Auckland to the relative seclusion of her new home, Lyttelton (Port In a Storm).
Except on those rare moments when she lets simplicity reign, Vindication Blues is shipwrecked by its attempt at PJ Harvey-style rock rage. And her voice, which commanded attention before, is buried behind the grunge-like caterwauling, which itself flails around like an octopus drowning on air.
Which may be the point: much of the album feels like an embedded, extended series of diary excerpts cataloguing her misery without him. “In the morning/I no longer see your face… I stumble through the day,” she sings. It’s great that she got those demons out, but there’s a sense of entitlement on these overlong, sluggish songs that’s bothering. GARY STEEL
Sound = 3/5
Music = 3/5
