It’s a question that you often get asked when people find out you like music.
“Who’s the best band you’ve seen live?” like you can answer. “Depends on mood”, I always say, “but it would be something like Iron Maiden, The Wildhearts, The Hold Steady, Black Sabbath’s last ever gig or Springsteen for the first time.”
Then you get asked the follow up. The “ok then, who’s the best band you’ve never seen?” The answer, of course, is Thin Lizzy with Phil, but the only two bands I might actually be able to see, are Poison and Lucero.
The former, is what I grew up with, the latter is where I am now. When I talk about music being a journey, this is what I mean. I have never been content to listen to the same old thing, and it was when I was in a serious DBT kick for the first time, must be about 15 years ago now, that I had to try and find bands that had a similar vibe. I found a rock band from Tennessee, who got called Alt-Country by people who haven’t a clue, but one who made the most interesting music you could imagine.
“When You Found Me” comes about three years after their “Among The Ghosts” record. One which I proclaimed on this site to be “one of the best of their career”. This one is better.
Recorded in isolation and lockdown in the summer of last year, it is said the band hadn’t rehearsed like they normally do but they had furiously and slavishly worked on their parts. It shows.
There’s a darkness, an eeriness, if you will, about “Have You Lost Your Way”, but the screeching guitars burst out of the shadows in which the lyrics lurk. It’s a brilliant opener – not least because to all intents and purposes, it doesn’t actually finish.
“Outrun The Moon” is a genuine stunner. Ben Nichols has never sung a song that suits him better than this one, right here, and the guitar line is one which will appeal to Jason Isbell fans.
Nichols part in this is interesting too, given that most of the lyrics seem to deal with family, and he has a young daughter of his own, it isn’t too much of a stretch to suggest that this might be more autobiographical than many Lucero albums.
It is, though, the sheer breadth and scope of “…..Me” that shocks. This is a band that has never been linear, but I’d argue that they’ve never done something as Americana as “Coffin Nails”, or something as deep sounding, as widescreen as “Pull Me Close Don’t Let Me Go”. It is almost cinematic.
Nothing, though, prepares you for the wash of Synth that is “Good As Gone”. More Joy Division than Drive-By Truckers, it is a shining example of the chances this takes, quite happily. That they can follow this up with the slow building, blue collar, dirt roads stuff of “All My Life” is to their eternal credit.
“A Match” is another of their twisted tales in the woodland darkness, and it is wrapped up in a proper catchy hook. The drums of Roy Berry are to the fore on the wonderful “City On Fire” – you imagine it was an attempt to excoriate Trump, and then moved on to other pastures (this is Lucero after all!)
Confession time, I’ve listened to this record about five times in writing this review and managed to come up with a different favourite song each time. The one I am picking this time is “Back In Ohio”, which sounds like The E St Band playing in a back street dive bar. The sax, man, it’s all about the sax.
As it ends on the most fragile note. The title track. “When you found me, I was falling” opines Nichols, in a half spoken, confessional way. And maybe that’s where he’s been, but there’s a genuine redemption in the words, the power of love, maybe.
“When You Found Me”, though, is a celebration of everything. A mighty whirlwind of just about everything that has existed in the history of rock n roll.
Rating 9.5/10
