Lost Love – Good Luck Rassco

Montreal power pop-punk act Lost Love has been settling on their sound since last signing with Stomp Records for their sophomore full length, Comfortable Scars.  The album was enjoyable if not a little predictable, and the promise of something residing beneath the surface on tracks where the band was able to break out from the typical formula spoke to future risk taking.  One look at the cover of their follow-up album, Good Luck Rassco, and it’s clear that Lost Love is aiming to pursue something a little more left of centre this time around.  

The band feels less like they’re writing songs they think other people want to hear, and seem more comfortable loosening up and exploring their sound.  Vocalist Guilhem Benard retains his natural clarity and precision, but gets a little wackier and more expressive. On songs like “Gospel Tabernacle” the band doesn’t hesitate to slow the tempo and let their stringy chords stretch out to wave and twist around the listener.  “Pardon My French” ups the tempo in a fast and frantic kind of way, but not without adjusting to a sloppy swagger for the final bridge. Meanwhile, “Sheriff Of St-Sandwich” offers up a mid-tempo affair that transitions strategically into the warm-landing, mellow riffs and super chill “woah-oh-oh” choral support of “Turisto Cracko.”  It’s this relaxed, no-strings-attached sense of songwriting that helps Good Luck Rassco distance itself from the latter.  “Burrito Kind of Guy” further diversifies the soundscape with a fuzzy, distorted guitar driven garage-punk that will surely appeal to former fans of college rock with lines like, “you’re more Empire than Force Awakens; you’re more Axel Rose then new wave.”

Lost Love has always followed a simplistic formula, but their latest effort takes more risks and infuses more personality.  The result is something that encompasses characteristics somewhere within the PUP and Jeff Rosenstock school of pop-punk.  Good Luck Rassco is tight while maintaining a creative flare, and keeps the surprises coming as the track listing unfolds.