Ludes - The Art of Happiness Album Review

Ludes
The Dark Art Of Happiness
17/04/2006
Double Dragon

When Ludes strolled onto the scene a few years hence, unleashing their brand of slightly paranoid post/mod indie sparring in shows with the likes of Future Kings of Spain and The Others, you felt that they are very much a band of the time. However, on the brink of their debut album, this fickle industry has moved on, but in opener 'Badlands' they do start of with disgruntled pungency, incorporating high roasting guitars to give some pulsation to the commencement. However, they don't really expand on this and the riffs tend to sound a tad lazy by the time of fourth track 'Sailor Boy'. This is until halfway through, when the poetically lolloping piano led 'Mr. Benson', sees David Ashby's normally gritty vocals take a polished and soulful style.

The band suddenly gets bold in 'Free' and adds a bit of free-styling funk into the mix with a slow bluesy vice gripping Ashby's voice. Things are now starting to get interesting and Ludes are beginning to show the adventure that they more than hinted at when they first arrived on the scene. The ska and country coated 'Luckiest Theatre', has a certain The Zutons instrumental spark and illuminates an empirical side to this London quintet. However, their once standout track of the growling garage rock ilk 'Dog Don't Bark', seems to have lost it's snap and the album seems to peter out like Peter Andres' voice if he were to fall down a bottomless well. However, you get the feeling that this is a band that are still growing and do ooze potential, it is just a pity that it is only realised in snatches on this debut offering.

David Adair

Rating 7.5/10

Rating guide:
9-10 Essential purchase
7-8 Good, definite buy if you've liked this artist in the past
5-6 OK only, don't say I didn't warn you
3-4 Poor, even for this artist
1-2 Awful

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Ludes
The Art of Happiness
Album Review

Bands that sound like The Clash have been rather prevalent lately, with The Libertines leading the charge in about 2002, until they disintegrated into three bands that sound like The Clash.
A continuation of this tradition is Ludes, although they have no previous affiliation with Pete and co, on their debut album they specialise in big, scratchy punk songs, that are more influenced by The Clash's ska/reggae period, particularly on the strangely tight "Never Had A Chance".
Lyrically, they don't seem to have the wit and incisiveness of some of their peers, many songs not deviating from the bloke-rock lyrical standard set by Oasis about twelve years ago, and while a lot of the tracks are often musically interesting, with rhythmic switches and rapidfire drumming, the overall sound begins to grate before the end. The slow-burning acoustic ballad "Green Eyes" has an air of tokenness about it, a hangover from "Wonderwall" no doubt.
That's not to say The Art of Happiness isn't a good rock 'n' roll album, if you enjoy the lager swilling geezer indie of Oasis, Stereophonics then you will love this record. However, Ludes are much more musically inventive than those knuckle-draggers. "Mr Benson" sets a fairground organ to a bouncy country rhythm, and closer "Dead Man's Music" is built around a melodic two-tone-esque bass line and discordant, scratchy guitars. The highlight though, is "Song For A Friend" in which the band manage to encompass all of the styles they hint at on the other tracks. Verses consist of the omnipresent ska rhythm, coupled with country style twiddly guitars, which then explode into a frenetic, but epic punk chorus which sounds something like the illegitimate love-child of Metallica and The Sex Pistols. The way it crescendos with thrashy punk noise, combined with squealing trumpets and a female voice choir has to be heard to be believed, and showed that Ludes have an enormous potential for writing huge, daft, and brilliant epics.
"The Art of Happiness" is a decent English punk record, which is let down by stagnant tracks like the workmanlike "Free", but there are enough interesting moments to suggest that Ludes are a band to watch, and will surely be capable of recording a truly great album.

Ben Davis