Lucky Number is a London based Independent Record Label and Music Publisher. The label was formed in 2005 and turns 15 years old this May. The current roster includes Charly Bliss, Darwin Deez, Dream Wife, Hinds, HMLTD, Jay Som, Middle Kids, Sleigh Bells and Sunflower Bean. The label also released the first international music by artists such as Gotye, (Sandy) Alex G, Friends and Sebastien Tellier.
2020, so far, has seen the label release of HMLTD’s highly anticipated debut album ‘West of Eden’ and there are forthcoming albums from both Dream Wife and Hinds.
Lucky Number’s top 10 recommendations –
Albums:
1.
We were delighted to release West of Eden, the expansive and labyrinthine debut album from HMLTD. Several years in the making, this is a daring collection of songs that incites conversation about proposed new visions of masculinity, the decadence of western capitalism and the violence of insecurity and repression. Across these 15 tracks the band have realised their artistic vision in full technicolour, with all shades of their sonic palette used to create an album that is equal parts lush and abrasive.
2.
Dream Wife – So When You Gonna…
The explosive second album from Dream Wife, So When You Gonna…, deals with topics such as abortion, miscarriage, and gender equality. While it touches on important themes, there’s also an immediacy, a ‘now or never’ excitement that exists right at the core of this record, that encourages you to stop waiting and start doing. The album title is a play on that central idea. “It’s an invitation, a challenge, a call to action,” say the band. So When You Gonna… will be released on July 3rd.
3.
With their third album The Prettiest Curse Hinds shrug off any remaining lo-fi accusations and unveil a dizzyingly widescreen beast of an album, not so much a shift as a quantum leap in their evolution as a band. This is a record positively bursting with life, with the band finally harnessing the full extent of their pop prowess and unleashing songs which sound bigger, bolder, and more complex than anything they have done before – out June 3rd.
4.
Darwin Deez – Darwin Deez (10 Yearz)
Upon its release in April 2010 Darwin Deez’s wonderfully off-kilter debut album, which featured ‘hit’ singles ‘Constellations’ and “Radar Detector’, was met with universal praise from international radio and press. By turns joyous and heart tugging, winsome and wistful, glorious and gorgeous, buoyed aloft by Deez’s ear for a soaring chorus and a catchy tune, not to mention his knack for a killer couplet, Darwin self-proclaimed the album as being ‘happy songs for sad people’, and the album has been re-released to celebrate its tenth anniversary.
5.
On their second album, you can trace the evolution of Charly Bliss from the bunch of scrappy upstarts who made 2017’s brash debut Guppy, to the confident, assured artists behind the comparatively dynamic, and unapologetically pop Young Enough. These often upbeat and irresistible tracks hide darker, more serious and impotent lyrics, embracing what vocalist lyricist Eva Hendricks describes as “the two best emotional releases… crying and dancing… it makes sense to me to marry the two.”
6.
Melina Dutere’s second proper album as Jay Som, Anak Ko is collection of dream pop songs that hint at a universe of her own creation. Inspired by the lush, poppy sounds of 80s bands such as Prefab Sprout, the Cure, and Cocteau Twins, as well as a handful of guitars bands of her contemporaries, it results in a dazzlingly tactile, and firmly present album, with a refreshingly precise sound.
7.
On release in 2016 this was Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss first album in three years. Initially a reaction to feeling hemmed in by their own trademark aesthetic, Jessica Rabbit continues their instinctive combination of sonic elements and pushing sounds to their limits to create an entirely new left-field pop music. The exhaustive recording process also involved, for the first time ever, someone outside of the band into their creative process, working with Mike Elizondo (Dr. Dre, Fiona Apple) on several tracks.
8.
The debut album from Middle Kids, Hannah Joy, Harry Day and Tim Fitz, Lost Friends sucker-punches you in the gut, revealing its nuances only after repeated listens. The songs’ edges are jagged, the production clean, stray imperfections imbue warmth and a human touch. Middle Kids craft classic hooks and riffs that tangle up in your brain like licorice and choruses that linger long after the song has faded.
9.
Sunflower Bean – Twentytwo In Blue
Incredibly released when all the members of New York trio Sunflower Bean were 22, there’s a sublime maturity and progression to the sound and songwriting on their second album Twentytwo in Blue. Whilst staying true to their classic rock-inspired roots, this record allowed them to explore new sonic textures with more direct and progressive themes. Their burgeoning confidence and politically active voice is a product of this growth, and allows them to astutely address the insanity of the times we’re in.
10.
Originally self-released on Bandcamp in 2012, we were delighted to remaster and release (Sandy) Alex G’s third album Rules (and his fourth, Trick, also released in 2012) on vinyl for the first time in early 2015, following his breakthrough album DSU. This outstanding trio of records really cemented Alex as, according to The FADER, “the internet’s secret best songwriter”, and Rules is possibly the underrated gem of the three. It’s track “Mis”, however, is one of his most beloved, with super-fan (and collaborator) Frank Ocean even selecting the song for his in-game radio station in Grand Theft Auto V.
