ALBUM REVIEW: NZCA Lines – Pure Luxury

Memphis Industries

Released: 10.07.20

Pure Luxury is Michel Lovett’s (aka NZCA Lines) third release and the first in nearly four years, following on from 2016’s Infinite Summer. Now I’m sure I don’t need to point out that quite a lot of things have happened in the last four years; so for Lovett, a multi-instrumentalist and producer, making an album insularly between the UK and USA has provided a gluttony of topics to cover.

Pure Luxury is awash with all the synth pop licks and groove-addled bass which have been a hallmark of his solo work; a sound which is, superficially at least, completely at odds with the seriousness of the subject matter. Zapp-inspired pop bangers about industrial agriculture and detaching ice shelves are hardly ordinary bed fellows but then again, we’re hardly living through ordinary times.