Fed up of 80s revivals, drug-addled celebrities and fads that pass quicker than you can say “New rave is a massive joke, yeah?”? Then Luke Leighfield is here to voice your frustrations in buoyant, sing-along piano pop form. ‘If You Haven’t Got Anything to Say’ is one of the highlights of Leighfield’s second record, ‘Fan the Flames’, and is his debut single proper. Never has cynicism sounded so much fun, as the future-pop-star-in-the-making tinkles the ivories jovially, whilst running through a list of music-related things that wind him up. Not that he’s mouthing off for the sake of it – there’s the distinct feeling that this song was written because Leighfield really cares, not to gain more publicity like certain members of the current indie fraternity like to do. If anything, it seems that ‘If You Haven’t Got Anything to Say’ was born out of frustration that musicians who are peddling the same unoriginal sounds swamp the charts and press, whilst DIY heroes like Luke are left in obscurity with the recognition they deserve being handed over to some one hit wonder. But with songs as strong as this (and there’s plenty of them over his two LPs), it shouldn’t be long until Leighfield himself is drowning in critical acclaim.
Flip over your record to find previously unreleased demo ‘Coming of Age’, a tale of teenage lust and adolescent mistakes – a topic that’s been sung about many times before, sure, but Luke Leighfield brings a fresh take to it with his youthful wisdom crafting lyrics like “The joy of getting older is making these mistakes” and “We’re still learning/We’re coming of age”. A beautiful song and perhaps an antidote to mend a broken heart, albeit one that will involve plenty of tears.
Rhian Daly
