Upon listening to the first five minutes of this album you could be mistaken in thinking that Lukestar are an imaginative and original band. After that you quickly realise that this is the most tedious collection of music since The Jesus And Mary Chain. If you’ve heard one song off of Lake Toba you’ve heard them all. Not only one of the most boring albums I’ve heard within the last five years; it’s also the most cringe-worthy. Everything from the continuous unbearable high pitched screeches coming from either the vocalist or his cat – I can’t tell which- to the monotonous guitar riffs. It all sounds a bit too much like a dodgy product of the Led Zeppelin era. To their credit, Lukestar do come up with one or two catchy sections throughout the whole album, but nowhere near enough for me to consider donating a penny towards purchasing it. They also managed to write one song that made them sound less like a 70’s tribute act and more like an equally bad 80’s tribute act in ‘House of Orion’: a song that sounds like a bizarre concoction of Cameo and an eight year old girl.

Years ago I heard an intelligent musical proverb that speaks volumes about the difference between real, articulate musicians and your average ‘Dave’ whose spent his hours learning a trade: “it’s not what you put in; it’s what you leave out”. That has stuck with me for years and enabled me to make harsh and snobbish opinions on terribly cheesy acts such as…erm what’s their name? Lukestar.