4 out of 5

Label: No Big Deal Records

Produced by: Masahiko Fukui

Vickeblanka’s debut, Tuberculin, starts off with a killer of a catchy track, and then jumps back and forth between similar pop awesomeness and somewhat more generic, boy-bandy stuff.  The balance makes it an enjoyable listen, and I found that my ears soon warmed to those inbetween tracks as well, appreciating their production depth and Vicke’s ever-present singing and playing chops.  In short: I ended up listening to that thing on repeat for quite a while.

Good Luck doesn’t exactly have a killer opening track, nor does it necessarily have anything that seems to instantly land as well as Tuberculin’s highlights.  I stirred my toe in the dirt; I said ‘aw shucks’ and eyed some future Vickeblanka releases.  But I figured that the previous album took a few spins to really open up, so giving this second one some of that same time can’t hurt.

It didn’t hurt at all, actually.  And Good Luck is fantastic.  The lack of the directly playful ditties that kicked off some Tuberculin tracks is due to the beefed up production of the disc: moving Vicke a little away from heartthrob boy band star and into heartthrob singer-songwriter territory.  Masahiko Fukui’s production captures a really compelling live band sound, and Vicke’s lyrics – only from what I can glean – have a bit more sophistication and maturity, which is again paralleled by a more advanced sense of song construction.  ファビュラス (‘Fabulous’) skirts through a small handful of pop inflections in a speedy, delightful 3ish minutes; closer Wake up sweetheart takes a propulsive beat and rockets it into the stratosphere. 

While I was initially missing those piano keys a’twinklin’, Good Luck is actually resplendent with them, they’re just surrounded with fuller compositions, moving Vickeblanka beyond the role of ‘piano guy.’  The penultimate TARA is really the disc’s only relative disappointment, sticking to a pretty straight-forward lovey-dovey sounding pace and croon, but, hey, when you’re a good looking, talented guy like Vicke, I guess tracks like this are sorta required.