The Spill Magazine The Spill Magazine
The Spill Magazine The Spill Magazine
The Spill Magazine The Spill Magazine
  • Reviews
    • Album Reviews
    • Features
    • Live Reviews
    • Festivals
  • Portraits
  • Headlines
    • News
    • Contests
    • Events
    • Entertainment Headlines
    • Concert Listings
    • Toronto Concert Venues
  • New Music
    • Premieres
    • Track Of The Day
  • Track Of The Month
  • Books + Movies
  • About
16
new
SPILL TRACK OF THE MONTH: ASTARI NITE – “BOWIE IN DAYDREAMS”
SPILL NEWS: RICKIE LEE JONES NEVER DID FOLLOW THE RULES | ‘PIECES OF TREASURE’ OUT APRIL 28 (BMG MODERN)
SPILL NEW MUSIC: INDIE POP SISTER TRIO JOSEPH RETURN WITH ANTHEMIC NEW ALBUM ‘THE SUN’ SET FOR RELEASE APRIL 28 ON ATO RECORDS
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: H.C. McENTIRE – EVERY ACRE
SPILL NEW MUSIC: BODYWASH ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM ‘I HELD THE SHAPE WHILE I COULD’ + SHARES NEW SINGLE
SPILL NEW MUSIC: THE BOO RADLEYS RELEASE NEW SINGLE AHEAD OF NEW ALBUM
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JERRY LEGER – LIVE FROM PARADISE
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: BOB DYLAN – FRAGMENTS – TIME OUT OF MIND SESSIONS (1996-1997) THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 17
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MARIANNE FAITHFULL – KISSIN’ TIME (REISSUE)
SPILL NEWS: YOUNG THE GIANT ANNOUNCES NORTH AMERICAN TOUR WITH MILKY CHANCE STARTING MAY 30
SPILL VIDEO PREMIERE: TEARING UP – “SAID SOMETHING”
SPILL VIDEO PREMIERE: EDNA FRAU – “ON THE LONG RUN”
SPILL MUSIC PREMIERE: GHOST LOVE – “MOURNERS DISCO”
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: KEVIN MORBY – MUSIC FROM MONTANA STORY
SPILL NEW MUSIC: SUBWAY TO SALLY SETS SAIL WITH SECOND SINGLE “LEINEN LOS” + UNVEILS ANIMATED OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
SPILL MUSIC PREMIERE: UNIVERSAL HONEY – “TIME BLINDNESS”
  • Reviews
    • Album Reviews
    • Features
    • Live Reviews
    • Festivals
  • Portraits
  • Headlines
    • News
    • Contests
    • Events
    • Entertainment Headlines
    • Concert Listings
    • Toronto Concert Venues
  • New Music
    • Premieres
    • Track Of The Day
  • Track Of The Month
  • Books + Movies
  • About
  • Spill Menu
    • Reviews
      • Album Reviews
      • Features
      • Live Reviews
      • Festivals
    • Portraits
    • Headlines
      • News
      • Contests
      • Events
      • Entertainment Headlines
      • Concert Listings
      • Toronto Concert Venues
    • New Music
      • Premieres
      • Track Of The Day
    • Track Of The Month
    • Books + Movies
    • About
Album Reviews
178
previous article
Album Review: Ralph Soul Jackson - The Alabama Love Man
next article
Album Review: Clan Of Xymox - Kindred Spirits

Album Review: The Generationals – Lucky Numbers EP

The Generationals
Lucky Numbers EP
Self-released digital download 

RATING

The Generationals (the New Orleans-based duo of Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer) dropped the wholly under-buzzed album Actor-Caster early in 2011. It was a sublime collection of Garage Indie-pop that promised great things for the band’s future. Their sound benefitted from a raw energy and perceived lack of calculation, flirting at times with minimalism, Stax-retro and wall-of-sound cacophony. If Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade) fronted Belle & Sebastian and then borrowed Peter Bjorn & John for a creative consult, then you might have the Generationals.

The sonic variety on Actor-Caster fostered repeat listenability. What we have with this Lucky Numbers EP is a narrower bandwidth of Generationals’ oeuvre. The concept behind the record was to venture out into “wherever” New Orleans and just record music. “Wherever” meant the basements and living rooms of friends, abandoned old houses, literally wherever inspiration struck them. The result is a synth-heavy trilogy of tracks with a definite medal-ceremony dichotomy. One is great, one is really quite good, and one is interesting but relatively uninspired.

First the relative meh. “Hazel House” is a forgettable and repetitive exercise, reminiscent of a Talking Heads track when David Byrne fell madly in love with a bland chorus, but without the compensating musicality. Fortunately for Lucky Numbers, the title track makes up for the “Hazel House” blues. “Lucky Numbers” is like a wintergreen mint after lukewarm tikka masala. It’s springy and insidious Synth-pop that rattles around your brain long after the fade-out. “Sale City” follows that up with more synth, this of the driving, pulsing variety more reminiscent of some of the tracks on Actor-Caster.

Due to the EP’s “wherever” recording concept, we can’t consider this a new direction for the Generationals. Rather, it’s the Generationals experimenting with one of their many micro-influences and perhaps purging the creative impulse to indulge it further. If it is a new direction, however, it’s less of a blind leap than, say, the synth high dive performed by Yeasayer with Fragrant World (2012). If only a one-off experiment, the brief EP offers a couple of tracks to throw around the year-end mixes and a tease for what’s yet to come from the Generationals. And that’s not too bad at all.

James David Patrick (Twitter @30hertzrumble)

generationals.com/

close

STAY UP-TO-DATE
WITH OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER!

* Mandatory Field

Check your inbox or spam folder now (just in case!) to confirm your subscription.

Item Reviewed

Album Review: The Generationals – Lucky Numbers EP

Author

James David Patrick

Here's what we think...
Spill Rating
Fan Rating
Rate Here
New Criteria
5.0
—
3.5
Total Spill Rating
—
Total Fan Rating
You have rated this
Album Reviews
album reviewsgenerationalslucky numbers ep
album reviews, generationals, lucky numbers ep
About the Author
James David Patrick
James David Patrick has a B.A. in film studies from Emory University, an M.F.A in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine, and an honorary Ph.D. in bullshitting about everything else from the College of Two Pints. His fiction and non-fiction has appeared in PANK, Monkeybicycle, Squalorly, Specter Lit, and Bartleby Snopes among other wordy magazines. While he does not like to brag (much), he has interviewed Tom Hanks and is pretty sure you haven't. He bl-gs about music, movies, and nostalgia at thirtyhertzrumble.com and runs the James Bond Social Media Project at thejamesbondsocialmediaproject.com. James lives in Pittsburgh, PA.
RELATED ARTICLES
album reviewsgenerationals
 
8.0
H.C. McEntire

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: H.C. McENTIRE – EVERY ACRE

by Ljubinko Zivkovic on January 27, 2023
H.C. McEntire Every Acre Merge Records Durham, North Carolina might not exactly be a renowned music center, but that there is quite a good chance that singer-songwriter H.C. McEntire and her latest release, Every Acre, might give that city a [...]
 
8.0
Jerry Leger

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JERRY LEGER – LIVE FROM PARADISE

by Bryan Williston on January 27, 2023
Jerry Leger Live From Paradise Latent Recordings Toronto singer-songwriter Jerry Leger is one of those artists who does not sit still for too long. With his solid motivation and work ethic, it’s little wonder that he is releasing some choice [...]
 
9.0
Bob Dylan
10

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: BOB DYLAN – FRAGMENTS – TIME OUT OF MIND SESSIONS (1996-1997) THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 17

by Aaron Badgley on January 27, 2023
Bob Dylan Fragments – Time Out Of Mind Sessions (1996-1997) The Bootleg Series Vol. 17 Legacy/Colombia/Sony Bob Dylan continues his bootleg series with number 17. For this box set, Fragments – Time Out Of Mind Sessions (1996 – [...]
 
8.0
Marianne Faithfull

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MARIANNE FAITHFULL – KISSIN’ TIME (REISSUE)

by Aaron Badgley on January 27, 2023
Marianne Faithfull Kissin’ Time (Reissue) BMG By 2002 Marianne Faithful was eager to return to a more contemporary sound following albums in which she focused on Kurt Weill. These include Weill recording and performing his opera The Seven [...]
 
8.0
Kevin Morby

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: KEVIN MORBY – MUSIC FROM MONTANA STORY

by Ljubinko Zivkovic on January 25, 2023
Kevin Morby Music From Montana Story Dead Oceans If there’s an artist who can come up with a soundtrack for a neo-Western film today, Kevin Morby might not be the usual choice, but just might be a great one. Scott McGehee and David Siegel [...]

Latest Album Reviews
View All
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: H.C. McENTIRE – EVERY ACRE
8.0
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JERRY LEGER – LIVE FROM PARADISE
8.0
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: BOB DYLAN – FRAGMENTS – TIME OUT OF...
9.0
10
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MARIANNE FAITHFULL – KISSIN’ TIME (...
8.0
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: KEVIN MORBY – MUSIC FROM MONTANA STORY
8.0

STAY UP-TO-DATE
WITH OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER!

* Mandatory Field

Check your inbox or spam folder now (just in case!) to confirm your subscription.

Tweets by @spillmagazine

SPILL MAGAZINE MENU
  • Home | The Spill Magazine
  • Premieres
  • Track Of The Month
  • Album Reviews
  • Books + Movies
  • Features
  • Live Reviews
  • Festivals
  • Portraits
  • News
  • Events
  • Entertainment Headlines
  • Concert Listings
  • Toronto Concert Venues
  • About Us
  • Contests
  • New Music
  • Contributors
  • TOTD
  • Privacy Policy
  • The Scene Unseen
  • Newsletter

Copyright © 2023 | The Spill Magazine
All Rights Reserved.

TRENDING RIGHT NOW
   
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: QUADECA – I DIDN’T MEAN TO HAUNT YOU
2318
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: THE HUMAN LEAGUE – THE VIRGIN YEARS
1830
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: SHRIEKBACK – BOWLAHOOLA
755
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: ELVIS PRESLEY – ELVIS ON TOUR
675
 
SPILL LIVE REVIEW: SUEDE AND MANIC STREET PREACHERS @ THE COMMODORE BALLROOM, VANCOUVER
520
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: CHEAP TRICK – LIVE AT THE WHISKY 1977
494
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: BOB DYLAN – FRAGMENTS – TIME OUT OF MIND SESSIONS (1996-1997) THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 17
478
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: DAVID CROSBY & THE LIGHTHOUSE BAND – LIVE AT THE CAPITAL THEATRE
347
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: NAZZ – LOST MASTERS & DEMOS
332
 
SPILL MUSIC PREMIERE: GRAMERCY ARMS – “YESTERDAY’S GIRL” FT. LLOYD COLE
318
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: LITTLE RIVER BAND – ULTIMATE HITS/MASTERPIECES
316
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JOAN ARMATRADING – LIVE AT ASYLUM CHAPEL
306
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: RINGO STARR AND HIS ALL-STARR BAND – LIVE AT THE GREEK THEATRE 2019
261
ENTERTAINMENT HEADLINES