Charismatic female singers fronting male rock bands can form an uneasy alliance. The men behind Debbie Harry resorted to issuing “Blondie is a Group” badges. Leila Moss is the undoubted star of the Duke Spirit, but the band’s second album is so brimming over with vitality, ideas and emotions that she doesn’t eclipse them at all.
Well-crafted pop songs with an art-rock bent are the mainstay: Wooden Heart is a tender ballad, while Lassoo manages to sound like both a 1960s soul-pop hit and an indie disco floor-filler. The album was recorded in part in the California desert but it sounds very British, with the kind of eccentric m?lange of influences that former art school kids like the Duke Spirit are so good at.
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