Description
The dream of kicking the corporate job in the head and making the indie pop album that was always in
you is not uncommon. To actually do it, and as gorgeously as Annie O’Rourke has in The Last of the Lovely Day’s debut album No Public House Talk, is singular.
The band is composed of O’Rourke plus The Others’ Jimmy Lager (‘bad boy’ turned good) on guitar
and keyboards, Caramel Jack’s Michael Eyers on bass, and Fugu drummer Paul Portinari. Brighton based, they fashion a multi-faceted musical world in which Blondie were a West Coast band fronted by Kirsty MacColl, C86 was C&W inspired, and Mama Cass lived to go gloriously solo. The album title? It’s just an Irish colloquialism for ‘I’m not bullsh**ting!’.
The anti-Billy Liar aesthetic and escape velocity, Alvvaysesque jangle-pop, of ‘Runaway’ sets the
primary tonal agenda; Lager cross hatching the guitar styles of Steve Diggle and Chris Stein (always playing for the song), Eyers staying melodically highlighted, and Portinari’s drumming shaping up as TLotLD’s secret weapon. ‘Away From Me’ turns the romantic tables as the lovelight fades, Annie and the band coming on like a rainy day Shop Assistants. The album’s sunniest sound, ‘To The Earth’, taps deeply into theMamas and Papas with glorious Laurel Canyon harmonies, allowing both a sparkle of hippie optimism and let it be fatalism into the mix. ‘Drink Away Our Love’ is a cautionary comedy, with a sting, of a couple soaking into mutual indifference, while the neurodiverse, timpani rich, incantatory vignette of ‘Almost Caro’ tells a tale of quiet individualism until falling to the album’s coldest cut, the post punk experimental sweep and Siouxsie Sioux isolationist chill of ‘See Me’.
Side B opens with the harsh-society lambasting Jam-informed bop of ‘Wrong Kind’ while the My
Darling Clementine infused charm of ‘Pale Blue Me’ provides the album’s catchiest slice of country
stylings, utilising the Irish inability to suntan as a metaphor for not giving a toss about being dumped.
A remarkable Sweet meets C&W percussive hybrid, ‘Fuel For Discontent’ allows O’Rourke to give a
hyper sarcastic big finger to all those with perpetual downers. Reinventing a Sham69 song is a rare
trick yet TLotLD’s reworking of ‘Poor Cow’ becomes a different animal by inverting the gender
perspective, upping the empathy quotient and the Lennonisms, with the surprise inclusion of a
GeorgeMartin style flute section. Public House bows out with a ballad of almost Thomas
Hardyesque trad. bleakness, channelling a soupcon of Lee and Nancy vibe in the dual-perspectivesung,
trapped-marriage broken romance of ‘Two Rings Don’t Make A Right’.
The lifelong writing curve of these songs creates a multiplicity of emotional perspectives. Sometimes
confident and directional, or occasionally world weary, but O’Rourke doesn’t stint on stories of
youthful insecurity and confusion and an emotional vulnerability is revealed reminiscent of the self
lacerations of the first Elvis Costello album and echoing the acute personal observations of the
greatly missedMacColl. It’s wise and it’s foolish and it’s life as lived in these Lovely Days.
“Pure power pop. Sounds like Kirsty MacColl and that is a very good thing indeed.” Michael Weston
King (My Darling Clementine)
“The Last Of The Lovely Days play classic 80s/90s-flavoured indie pop with smart lyrics and
instantly memorable melodies. For fans of The Primitives, Lush and Blondie.” Simon Price (Record
Collector/The Guardian/The Quietus)
Track listing:
Side A:
Runaway
Away From me
To The Earth
Drink Away Our Love
Almost Caro
See Me
Side B:
Wrong Kind
Pale Blue Me
Fuel For Discontent
Poor Cow
Two Rings Don’t Make A Right
GENRE: Alternative Rock
BARCODE: 619091684503
RELEASE DATE: 19/09/2025
