Maroon Weekly

By Brice Nichols

I don’t know what it is about people, but they love to find out what kind of music you’re into. I give the expected response, which is either a complete lie based on what I think they expect to hear or a meandering ramble into overly descriptive subgenres, depending on just how obnoxious I feel like being at the time.

The question is secretly a nosy trap, like when your girlfriend gazes lovingly into your eyes and asks “Would you still love me if my face was mangled beyond recognition by a rabid badger?” No matter how calculated your response is, you’ll be judged harshly and answer “wrongly” 99% of the time.

A better approach to this question would be “What artist personifies your life the most?” to which I would be able to easily snap off a few artists, one of the most important being Lucero.  The first time I heard Lucero I was immediately convinced that they were what I might sound like if I were ground down, converted to sound waves and pumped through a vintage tube amp. If you have no idea what that means, you just haven’t had your epiphany yet.

Lucero wraps alt-country around garage punk and serve it up unapologetically. It’s the kind of restless tone the musically mixed up like myself can really identify with. Frontman Ben Nichols (no relation), forges in a history of rebellious rock and roll to the country influence from the band’s base station in Memphis, Tennessee, leaving a gritty residue of purely unique Americana.

1372 Overton Park is the band’s newest contribution to the music world, expanding on their basic sound with the new addition of a full horn section. I have to admit, horn sections usually bring out the skeptic in me, but Lucero manages to keep the Tom Jones influence far away from this album. If anything, it’s exactly what the album needed, and it makes a nice smooth contrast against Nichols’s raspy vocals.

The album warms up quickly with the opening tracks, especially with the second and third tracks “What Are You Willing To Lose?” and “Sounds of the City.” Fast paced verses with stretching choruses set the tone for the rest of the album.

“The Devil and Maggie Chascarillo” and “Johnny Davis” latches onto a rock and roll drive that gives a good punch to the middle of the album, making sure every part of the album is bursting with something to listen to. Rounded out nicely by a subtle ballad “Hey Darlin’ Do You Gamble?” and finale “Mom” the album closes in a subdued but strong lament.

With 1372 Overton Park, Lucero manages to polish their tunes nicely for their first major label release, but don’t lose a breath of the raw sound that got them started. Lucero has always been one of the few bands that fit nicely in the ears of both country fans and rock and roll devotees, and this album only does more to reinforce their claim on that grey area between the genres.