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Conquest Records [Release date 23.06.23]
With new Thunder activity on hold for a while as Danny Bowes continues his long road to recovery, the time is right for the band’s lead guitarist and chief songwriter Luke Morley to release his first solo album in over 20 years. Actually these songs were written and recorded a couple of years ago during lockdown as he kept his musical muse busy and other than drums courtesy of former The Union bandmate Dave McCluskey and the odd guest appearance, is a genuine solo album.
‘I Wanna See The Light’ is a superb opener, a slightly jangly slice of American heartland rock supported by female backing vocals, with the real revelation quite how good his vocals are. ‘Killed By Cobain’, a wistful story of how the rise of Nirvana suddenly blew a hole in Thunder’s plans to break the States has naturally attracted much comment. To a jaunty musical backing with elements of both the Traveling Wilburys and ‘Waterloo Sunset’, the lyric ‘it really doesn’t matter no more’ suggests wistfulness rather than angry satire.
The Ray Davies comparison continues with another quirky, gently melodic song in ‘Errol Flynn’, its imaginary conversations with stars of literature and the silver screen reminding me of ‘Celluloid Heroes’. ‘Damage’ is almost Paul McCartney-esque and piano-led with Luke’s guitar only kicking in late, and ‘Nobody Cares’ is almost like a French chanson. In spite of Danny Bowes adding some backing vocals alongside Ricky Warwick it takes the album as far away from Thunder territory as can be imagined, though its downbeat melodies might have lent themselves to one of the Union albums.
There are though a back-to-back pair of relative rockers that it is just possible with a leap of faith to imagine Danny Bowes singing in Thunder’s hands- in ‘Watch The Sun Go Down’ and the more seventies sounding ‘Cry Like Rain’ all full of the rootsy goodness of power chords with a Hammond organ giving added colour and in the former’s case a harmonica solo.
‘Lying To Myself’ is acoustic with some vocal harmonies and a closing harmonica solo and another that has a McCartney-esque feel to it, while ‘I’m The One You Want’ has a strong Black Crowes vibe and mid song diverts into a funky jam, then ‘Don’t Be Long’ closes the album with more Beatles-ish sounds, albeit more in the style of John Lennon.
This mellow and beguiling album, with its timeless pop-influenced melodies, demonstrates a totally different string to Luke Morley’s bow and comes highly recommended as the perfect easy listening for the summer’s hot days. **** 1/2
Review by Andy Nathan
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