Today it deviates from the streets where I usually take you, today it whizzes away on the streets of rock.
A rock contaminated by the country of the South of the United States, but also by a soul that oscillates between punk and alternative-rock. An explosive mix, fresh and never banal.
The band is not the first hair, on the contrary it has been on the breach for a long time: 25 years, a life. Lucero were formed in Memphis, Tennessee and those born there can only have a sound influenced by the greats of rock and roll.
The band is led by frontman, voice and guitar, Ben Nichols, a great songwriter in my opinion very underrated. The rest of the band consisted of Brian Venable on the other guitar, Roy Berry on drums, Rick Steff on keyboards and John C. Stubblefield on bass.
A band that has been a granitic for many years, both live and studio.
They have labeled them with many terms, different genres, but absorbed the contaminations you can summarize the sound of the group as rock.
Simply rock, with so many anime as it is used in their parts, on the other hand there is impossible not to be inspired by genres that were born there: rock, blues, country, southern, soul… The air is good.
Lucero arrived at the thirteenth studio effort and today they are one of the oldest and most respected independent rock band in America. Real legends, especially for their famous live shows that are real parties for fans.
The production entrusted for the third time to the award-winning Matt Ross-Spang now knows what to do and what not to do with the sounds of the Memphis band. It is non-invasive and helps to express all the great potential and capture the energy that the group has live, even in the studio.
In these 10 pieces there are no signs of fatigue or failure due to the many years spent between recording studios and live clubs. There is a band aware of their means and with an inspiration that never seems to give up the mind of Nichols, whose voice has a punk soul that seems to come from a garage in Camden in London, more than from a blues club in Memphis.
To enter the world of Lucero, just press play and start a song that already from the title will make you understand a lot of the mood that animates the band: One Last F.U.
A song that immediately attacks with percussion and an electric guitar discharge. An intense street rock and a text that is a statement: let me drink alone and…hello! The voice scratches and attacks the speakers, together with the masterful work of guitar and rhythm. Beautiful way to start a wonderful rock record!
Guitars work great and intertwine and the next piece is rock, it’s melody, it’s passion.
Macon If We Make It has a text inspired by a trip that the band had to make for a concert in Macon, Georgia during a hurricane, but then you understand that it is just a pretext to talk about a difficult relationship. The guitar solo is a little jewel, rock-licking as the E-Street Band of the golden years. Gorgeous and we are only at the second!
With the sound coming out of the speakers with At The Show, I can tell you that the girl of the song you are trying to impress at a concert, certainly could melt.
A solar rock and shoot at full volume during a nice road trip, sun and wind, heat and lots of fun: it is rock of superior quality. You don’t try to invent anything, just to play great music and it’s great for Nichols and his guys.
Today’s Lucero have taken the early Lucero, mixed them with those of the last two albums and are projecting them into the future with a recognizable and mature sound.
Guitars, riffs and punk vocals: what can go wrong? Nothing! And here is Nothing’s Alright, a song that tells us about the old days and sounds like the old days.
Piano and voice guide us in the lively ballad Raining For Weeks, a ballad in the manner of Lucero, not banal.
The title track is biting in both Nichols‘ music and consummate rocker voice, and with that lyrics it could be considered a song to be used as a teaching of what punk-rock is.
The song tells us that they “the lesson of life” even if they know it well, they don’t seem to have assimilated it yet, but the guitar solo with keyboards response, is electric magic and could become a small manual for young people who believe they are punk.
The two ballads that close the record are beautiful but different.
Drunken Moon is a dreamy track, with keyboards to act as a carpet and the voice of Nichols that proves versatile. A piece that seems inspired by the rock that came from California.
The final Time To Go Home is a goodbye and is the only reference to their country influences. A wonderful ballad between acoustic and electric, enhanced by the sound of an accordion that gives it a delicate tex-mex flavor. Beautiful as always the work of the guitars.
A band that continues to write quality pages of the history of American music, without showing signs of fatigue or gentrification.
One album after another, one concert after another, always on the piece, so much talent and a great desire to tell poems with a punk soul and a rock heart.
After more than 20 years they are still here and with this wonderful record they are back great and there are to stay.
Good listening,Claudio Trezzani by http://www.ticinonotizie.it
(you can find original italian article at this link: https://www.ticinonotizie.it/lucero-shouldve-learned-by-now-2023-by-trex-roads/ )
