I fully expected another anger rock band playing the part that seems to sell records these days. However, that's not what I got. This group out of Toccoa Falls College sounds like something very different. Man, these kids sound like the Smiths. I'm not talking on a merely conceptual basis, where bands like Pulp (especially on Different Class) take the same approach to producing a particular sound with tricks like voice overlaying. These guys want to be the Smiths.

The brothers Bozeman, who front the band, apparently spent many rainy days locked in a room listening to classics such as "Panic" and "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out." Singer Lee Bozeman sounds like a young Steven Morrissey who has yet to find that amazing vocal range. The guitar chops of Jamie Bozeman sound as if they were from the fingers of a young Johnny Marr when he first picked up the guitar. The aspect of Luxury that gives them the potential to become super (if they fine-tune their sound) is the drum work of Glenn Black. There are not many bands out there where the drummer really sets down the beat and leads the band.

To sum up Luxury is to sum up the Smiths...they sound like rain. While the Smiths comfort you and make you feel good, Luxury makes you a little uneasy. I think that just comes from being raw and fresh with a beautiful objective in sight. At the end of the day, that is so much more wonderful than Drivin' 'n' Cryin' sounding like the Black Crowes sounding like Lynyrd Skynyrd sounding like dirt.

On the world wide scale of "give it to a she-male on Myrtle Street" to "average" to "knock me down and break my hip," I must quote Morrissey, Marr, and company and remember "when they pulled me back and held me down and looked me in the eyes and said `you just haven't earned it yet, baby.'" If I were you, I would give Luxury a fair chance. You might be as pleasantly surprised as I was.

~William Thornhill