(Indie Rock, Alternative, Britpop) The Luxury - Bones & Beaten Heart - 2015, MP3, 320 kbps

Are the Luxury a guitar or a keyboard band? Does the Boston foursome play prog or power pop? Does their new album “Bones and Beaten Heart” emulate the Beatles or advance the Killers’ aesthetic?
These aren’t rhetorical questions. I want answers. But after listening to “Bones and Beaten Heart” for four hours on repeat, I haven’t figured much out. Thankfully, I’m happy to puzzle over the Boston act’s first album in five years.
Through upheaval (both personal and with his band’s lineup), frontman Jason Dunn forged a minor masterpiece. Bright harmonies and big arena rock counter dark lyrics and moody melodies: Dunn sings “Why Don’t You Cry Anymore” with such joie de vivre; he spins out chord changes on “Ring Around the Ghost” that go from trippy British Invasion to buoyant Britpop.
Sequenced with washes of synths that bleed the 14 tracks together and without a dull or daft moment, “Bones and Beaten Heart” appears to be the happy result of a few years of misery. I’m sorry Dunn had to hurt to make great art, but, well, I’m not too sorry.
Curious how the Luxury will bring an album mixing ’60s psychedelia, ’80s new wave and modern electrorock to life in concert? The band’s album release party is Friday at Cuisine En Locale in Somerville. By: Jed Gottlieb