Pre-Order: Willie Healey J - Lucky [Digipak]

The revered Oxfordian songwriter's talent for mining vintage textures and giving them a contemporary facelift appears evolved and ambitious on new album Lucky, his first full-length since 2023's acclaimed outing Bunny. Working more acoustically here, and often quickly, a sense of Healey's instinctive knack for melody and razor-sharp ability to lock horns with personal themes and transform them into something universal is immediate. Lucky is packed with his unmistakable, easy charisma and breezy songwriting talents, and new single 'Benjamin' carries a distinct thrust that accompanied by rolling piano delivers a direct, earthy and emotionally resonant performance. 'There's nothing too fancy about the recordings we got, which I'm very happy about. I felt slightly caught up in making things slick - I didn't want to do that this time.. I couldn't be bothered. To me it feels direct and simple! Which is weirdly hard to do sometimes.