Paul Broadhead discovers a darker offering from Lucero’s 10th release
Thirty Tigers
Released: 03.08.18
Lucero’s 10th LP is a much darker offering than 2015’s honky tonk bash, All A Man Should Do. There’s a heavier emphasis on bluesy guitar riffs like the War On Drugs-esque Bottom Of The Sea, with the organ kept to a minimum. The stripped back production on tracks like Everything Has Changed means Ben Nichols’ whiskey-soaked rasp has never sounded so good.
The country blues of the title track sets the tone and never lets up until The Replacements-meets-Springsteen – brief but riotous – closer, For The Lonely Ones, which almost seems like an afterthought. Overall though it’s a considered, thoughtful, confessional of an album that is up there with the Memphis band’s finest.
