The blueprint to writing a good pop song never changes — and I don’t think it ever will. It’s a theory that Melbourne’s long-standing purveyors of indie pop glory The Lucksmiths certainly ascribe to. It makes their new album – and 11th proper - First Frost sound timeless. Sure it’s released in 2008, but it could have easily been dropped anytime within the past 20 years. And there’s something inexplicably comforting about that.

The Lucksmiths have held an interminable presence on the Australian music landscape since their genesis in 1993, bearing the torch passed on by The Go-Betweens and The Triffids. A song like ‘Up With The Sun’ is reminiscent of a Forster and McLennan partnership with lyrics such as, “There was a time when every lunch was breakfast”, and the sprightly open chords and understated rhythms that feature throughout.

There’s an effortless whimsy that makes First Frost a charming album. Across 50-plus minutes of music, The Lucksmiths demonstrate how years of releases and touring have honed their impressive knack for writing a sepia-toned winsome pop tune. From the country-inflected ‘Lament of the Chiming Wedgebill’ to ‘Good Life’, a song that sounds like a long-lost *16 Lovers Lane *outtake, The Lucksmiths’ vocalist/drummer Tali White knows how to make even the most heartbreaking subjects exude some sense of positivity. His vocals aren’t what you’d call exceptional but they’re soft and warm, and they draw you in while he sings tales about suburban life and flawed characters searching for redemption.

Like the protagonists in White’s lyrics, The Lucksmiths aren’t without their own blemishes. They’re certainly skilled at writing a pop song, but their hooks aren’t as accomplished as some of their contemporaries. Perhaps it’s this shortcoming that’s relegated The Lucksmiths to the class of cult favourite rather than a mainstream success story. But the Melbourne outfit know arrangements, and whether it’s in the unassuming but pivotal injection of strings and brass in opener ‘The Town and the Hill’, or the saloon choir in the quartet’s ode to the downtrodden ‘The National Mitten Registry’, First Frost is documentation of a band adept at writing beautiful and lyrical songs that’ll make you smile.

by Dom Alessio