Luca Brasi’s 6th studio album The World Don’t Owe You Anything has dropped in one of the most crowded years for new music in recent times. The post COVID era is clearly here, and bands are dropping records left right and centre, thus, I’ve dragged myself out of a 4-year hiatus to get into some reviews. With 4 years of rust and sleep deprivation from a 6-week-old baby on board, I’ll apologise in advance if this thing goes off the rails or reads particularly poor.
As I’ve snuck off for some quiet time to punch out this review, I stick in my KZ IEMS and for the first time hear this album in the most clarity I have yet (most prior listening on a Sonos One). The opening track “The Entry Ramp” introduces the album beautifully as it builds in volume and intensity from the opening bar to a distorted transition to the title track “The World Don’t Owe You Anything”. The songs are clearly meant to be listened together linked by the first opening lines of each, “Hear the heat pump on. Hear the highway started and “Hear the front door slam. Hear the highway started along with other call-backs throughout. That kind of intention in an album is just how I like it. The chorus “the world don’t owe you anything” is sung with passion and though repetitive, the track is an absolute banger.
Luca Brasi show off some melodic punk in the fourth track “Rinse and Repeat” with the loud, bouncy rhythm striking hard as vocalist Tyler Richardson yells out “Been a hell of a mess, been a fucking train wreck” to kick off the song – one of the most memorable lyrics and moments of the album. The track continues to shine throughout as a refreshing punk track in an Australian market increasingly diluted with toned-down ‘punk’ music.
After peaking with intensity through tracks 3-5, the tone starts to soften through “Sonny” before absolutely peaking with the soft, but simply brilliant track “Scars”. I don’t mind Luca Brasi having softer songs – they were doing it years before it in fashion with bands like Slowly Slowly and Sly Withers (no disrespect to those bands, they’re good, but the genre is over-done at the moment) and can still demonstrate some proper punchy Punk that the album started with. Side-bar over and back to “Scars”, the first half of the [presumed] breakup song is filled with brilliant lyrics and passion sung over an acoustic guitar. From “Writing the words keeps falling apart. It gives me a reason to breath. It gives me a reason to start” to “We’re all at the mercy of what we don’t understand. Scars on dirty knees. Dirty Scars on hands” you think the song can’t or won’t get better and that its repetition is here to stay. But it’s not; halfway through the track the chorus changes completely to the best lyric on the album “it’s better the devil you know. Then less of the devil you don’t. If it’s less of the devil, it’s less of the trouble. It’s more of the things you want”. I don’t know what it is about that lyric, but it just hits hard, maybe it’s just relatable and why so people stay in situations, jobs, relationships they’re not completely happy in – hell, it might even be why Australia so disappointedly and overwhelmingly voted No in the recent referendum – it’s [perceived to be] less of the devil, less of the trouble.
The pace immediately lifts again with “‘Til Forever”, a track that sounds like it’s been lifted directly from the bands best (in my opinion) album “By a Thread”. It’s loud, but it’s really the drums that shine on this track and they’re coming through beautifully on my KZ IEMs compared to the Sonos speaker. The album moves through a solid couple of songs in “Concussion” and “Losin’”, if nothing special, before concluding with another stand out vocal-heavy number in “A Place to Begin”. The song is an uplifting piece about appreciating yourself as you are and inspiring self-confidence in a world where it is sorely needed. The more out of place lyrics “Wonder why you wipe cobwebs. Spiders need a home” are among the most memorable on the album and seem to be about taking care of others as well.
The overall quiet song lifts towards the end to round out the album in the same way it started, with a loud, distorted punk inspired sound as Tyler shouts “everyone needs a place to begin” over and over.
Luca Brasi have put together a very solid album in The World Don’t Owe You Anything, it stands out above their last release Everything is Tenuous but might not quite hits the highs of their second album, By a Thread. In what has been a very busy year for new music, Luca Brasi have captured my attention long enough to make this one of my most listened to albums this year and that is a testament to the album’s quality.
7.5/10
Matt Power
20 October 2023
