Australia’s own Alex Lahey hit the indie-pop scene with force with her 2017 debut album I Love You Like a Brother, an effort that was met with widespread critical acclaim and considerable mainstream success. Now, the Melbourne-based singer-songwriter is returning with her sophomore full-length LP, The Best of Luck Club. The album officially drops this Friday, but Mixed Mantra was fortunate enough to get a sneak peak of Lahey’s new tunes — read our review below:

The Best of Luck Club will feel very familiar to fans of Lahey’s work — it’s filled with much of the same candid, introspective lyricism and guitar-laden instrumentation that elevated her to indie stardom — but the new album does see her spreading her musical wings, so to speak. Some tracks, like “Misery Guts,” exhibit a previously untapped wealth of punk rawness in the vein of Courtney Barnett, while others, like “Am I Doing It Right?,” see her unabashedly dipping into the playbook of contemporary pop.

The through line of Lahey’s work, though, is her sharp, clever songwriting — a talent she’s been honing since her debut which shines like never before on the new LP. Much of the album’s lyrical content verges on self-deprecating (somewhat ironic considering the title of its lead single, “Don’t Be so Hard on Yourself”), touching on youthful insecurities that I imagine a good deal of listeners will find inherently relatable: “It can go so wrong in a million different ways / I have no home, just a place to stay / But I still miss my mom when I have to go away.”

Lahey’s deft lyricism is at the core of The Best of Luck Club‘s effectiveness, to be sure, but it goes hand-in-hand with another of the album’s biggest strengths: It is so. damn. catchy.

With no shortage of infectious guitar licks and vocal performances practically begging to be sung along to, nearly every track on the project has the potential to bounce around one’s head for days post-listen. Simply put, there isn’t much wrong with The Best of Luck Club aside from one or two slightly underwhelming cuts — the dreary “Unspoken History” didn’t particularly impress, although it’s far from unpleasant — and I’d strongly urge you to give the album a shot. Odds are, you’ll walk away with a few welcome additions to your indie playlist.

RATING: 8/10

FAVORITE TRACKS: “I Don’t Get Invited to Parties Anymore,” “Am I Doing It Right?,” “Interior Demeanour,” “Don’t Be so Hard on Yourself”