The Last of the Lovely Days, No Public House Talk, Gare Du Nord Records

Stephen Graham

8 months ago

Seeing out the end of summer with a change of scene

I struck lucky here like Lance Stater in Detectorists finding singer & synth player Annie O’Rourke, who fronts Brighton band The Last of the Lovely Days and writes great songs that aren’t pretentious and speak to the heart however tough and uncompromising the words seem at first. Her voice is ideal from that point of view. The songs are just as good.

There aren’t many chord changes, neither are the keys obstinately obscurantist to prove some kind of muso point. But it’s not dumbed down listening either. O’Rourke sings about being let down and blue. And there’s a simmering sense of disappointment defused by an independent spirit that allows her to be free. O’Rourke is backed by guitarist Jimmy Lager, bass guitarist Michael Eyers and drummer Paul Portinari. Their sound is essentially rockabilly loving – you will know that when you spend time sampling their rousing role found on ‘Fuel For Discontent.’

‘Runaway’ is easily the best of the mostly O’Rourke written or co-written songs about the protagonist running away to London with her boyfriend. ‘Two Rings Don’t Make a Right’ features Peace Sign’s Keiron Phelon. A lovely record. There’s also a transformative cover of highly controversial 1970s punk band Sham 69’s magnificently scathing ‘Poor Cow’ with its observation “Poor cow you lied to all mankind/But you get fucked up by the out of touch.”