Thankfully, Australian three piece The Lucksmiths have more in common with the pre-Gallagher notion of independent music, their honey drenched harmonies owing more to Forster and MacLennan than McCartney and Lennon.
The sprightly opener 'Camera-Shy' owes more than a passing nod to Sarah Records stalwarts The Sea Urchins, while singer Marty Donald's effortless lilt is eerily reminiscent of Gene frontman Martin Rossiter, albeit minus the annoying Morrissey-isms that made Rossiter's bunch impossible to listen to most of the time without cringing in a dark corner.
From the breezy 'What You'll Miss' to the melancholic 'The Perfect Crime', which contains quite possibly the most unhappy ending ever consigned to a piece of music ("You left your sentence open / You left without a sound / The words we kept unspoken / Bury them in the ground"), 'Naturaliste' proves to be both poignant and intriguing in equal measures, while 'There Is A Boy That Never Goes Out' shows that Australians may have a sense of humour after all.
Quite simply, 'Naturaliste' is the melodic equivalent of a change in season, and only the most obscure form of tunnel vision (aka "OasisruleOK-itis")could fail to recognise the desolate beauty that raises its impregnable head with every continuous play of this album.