CD Reviews: Luckless

Relocating from Auckland to Lyttelton last year, singer-songwriter Ivy Rossiter wasted no time getting to work on the follow-up to 2012 debut album, again drawing on a range of personnel to put sometimes hefty, sometimes ethereal flesh on the bones of her Luckless project.

As Rossiter evokes a long road trip on which the sun occasionally shines, her lyricism adds further weight to Vindication Blues, which mixes dynamic instincts (Road Retreats) with a cinematic inclination (Telephone Song, Better Than Being Blue) and a studio nous that, while accomplished, manages to stay out of the way of the songs.