Melbourne-based songwriter Alex Lahey releases her sophomore album, The Best Of Luck Club today. Praised by Rolling Stone for her “frown-proof rock that cuts off slices of life with a razor-sharp blade,” Lahey returns with an even broader spectrum of emotion and sound.
We last heard from Lahey on her remarkable debut, I Love You Like A Brother, which drew a wealth of year-end praise from the likes of Noisey, SPIN, Bandcamp, Paste, Under The Radar, Uproxx, Brooklyn Vegan, Red Bull, and beyond. The Best of Luck Club picks up where Brother left off, but sprints forward with killer hooks, her acute sense of humor, and a more polished sound. Throughout, Lahey’s sharp songwriting and propensity for taking personal minute details and transforming them into anthemic pop-punk is showcased as she sings about self-doubt, break-ups, mental health, moving in with her girlfriend, vibrators, and generational ennui. Here, Lahey documents “the highest highs and the lowest lows” of her life to date.
For The Best Of Luck Club, Lahey landed in Nashville for intensive songwriting sessions. She would sometimes lock herself in a room for 12-hour days, and ended up churning out more than half the songs for the record. Most significantly, she found The Best Of Luck Club thesis while she was there. “In Nashville I was really inspired by the dive bar scene there and the idea that at these dive bars there’s no pretentious energy,” she explains. “Whether you’ve had the best day of your life or the worst day of your life, you can just sit up at the bar and turn to the person next to you – who has no idea who you are – and have a chat. And the response that you generally get at the end of the conversation is, ‘Best of luck,’ so The Best Of Luck Club is that place.”
The month-long recording process took place in her hometown of Melbourne at Sing Sing South. Lahey co-produced the album alongside Catherine Marks (Local Natives, Wolf Alice, Manchester Orchestra), who she credits as a humorous guide that improved her attention to detail and self-confidence. Lahey plays nearly every instrument, even returning to the saxophone, which she said began as a tongue-in-cheek decision but turned into an ode to her past studying jazz saxophone at university.