freddie-dickson-modern-luck-album-review

Freddie Dickson, British singer-songwriter known for his dark indie rock sound and haunting vocals has released album Modern Luck, his first since 2019’s Blood Street.

Freddie Dickson has been on LTW’s radar for a number of years. We first featured him in a live review from 2015 after a gig at Camden Barfly. Keith Goldhanger writing at the time, ‘A real good find and already a stack of tunes available at the click of a button ready for us all to fall in love to.’ It would be over 6 years before our paths crossed again, in 2021 with yours truly reviewing the EP Idiot’s Dream filled with cinematic sounding numbers such as the title track and Night People.

The new album, Modern Luck has been 3 years in the making, not due to Dickson’s work rate, but the simple fact that life as an independent artist has it’s challenges, with the Berlin based musician primarily working with other artists to fund his own ambitions. The good news is, that the time appears to have been put to good use, delivery a cohesive set of 9 considered atmospheric tracks which have been influenced by the times we are living in.

Take the title track for example, there’s a palpable anger and frustration in the track, which is at odds with some of his older songs. Many of the tracks have also come from conversations with friends, as Dickson explains, ‘Taking shape from feeling lost in the industry and what to do next. We’re all getting a bit older and wondering has our chance gone and this sort of thing.’ You can hear that in tracks like Everybody Has Needs and I Got Hurt. Those friends play a key role on the record, with the artist pulling in his favourite Berlin based musicians, who kindly jumped in and recorded bits at different moments, both remotely and in the studio.

Moden Luck continues the feel of previous releases, and maybe this is because he’s one step removed from the UK and ‘the industry’ that it feels timeless. Whilst it’s inspired by artists such as Sleaford Mods and Nick Cave, it doesn’t sound like them. It sounds like a movie yet to be made.

Without diminishing the rest of the album, my personal favourite track is the closing What A Difference Your Love Makes. It’s has a delicate ebb to it, carried along by a superb vocal performance from Dickson underpinned by Vera Lucia which reminds me of Spiritualized at their most blissful.

As the winter nights draw in and you find you have time on your hands, Modern Luck is an album which deserves your time and repeat listens…

For more infomation and news visit the artists website

Listen to Iain Key chatting to Freddie Dickson for Louder Than War Radio here

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All words by Iain Key. See his author profile here or find him via his LinkTree