New Music Review

Lucero
1372 Overton Park
Universal Records
CD










When I call a band, or anything else for that matter, a one-trick pony, a lot of people are quick to assume that I mean it in a disparaging way. I actually think that in most instances, nothing could be farther from the truth. As a matter of fact, I think being a one trick pony can be a fabulous thing, provided the artist in question is really good at whatever that trick happens to be. You can't be any more one-dimensional than the Ramones were, and they will remain one of my favorite bands until the very end. Memphis alt-country-indie-americana-whatever-else-you-want-to-call-them-rockers Lucero are a one trick pony. And while I've never been that big of a fan, I always thought they were pretty decent and appreciated their output. It was never the most original sounding thing that I'd ever heard, but Ben Nichols has a really cool, gruff sounding voice, and the songs were edgy-sounding but still well crafted. I will forever call bullshit on Nichols' insistence that he had never heard Uncle Tupelo when Lucero started playing, but I may be taking that a little too personally because Tupelo is one of my favorite bands. Regardless, I still thought Lucero was pretty decent in their own right, and I was curious to hear what the major label debut would sound like. Unfortunately for Nichols and crew, on 1372 Overton Park, they sound more like an aging hooker turning a trick, than a show pony performing one.

When I first listened to this album, I couldn't put my finger on exactly where it failed. This was probably because it fails nearly everywhere, and I only have 10 digits. The songs are stale and unimaginative; the lyrics are tired and unimaginative, the arrangements are boring and unimaginative. Are you sensing a theme here? There is nothing on here that hasn't been done before, and rarely have I heard it executed this poorly. The entire effort reeks of a cologne I would call 'trying too hard'. I was taken aback by how bad it was, but then I discovered this little nugget of information about the producer, Ted Hutt: He was an original member of Flogging Molly. Then it all started to make sense. If you want to create a drab record that lacks imagination, who better to hire to record it than a band mate of a guy who made a living out of ripping off The Pogues, and then had the audacity to deny that he was influenced by them?

The production on this record is what stands out as the worst thing about it; Hutt did a miserable job. The bands greatest asset, Nichol's voice, sounds too nice and polished and completely goes to waste. Hutt tries to make the overall sound too big and too pretty, and I don't know why any reasonable person would have thought this was a good idea. If anything, it exposes the band's flaws as musicians. Several songs feature horn arrangements that sound completely out of place and artificial. Sure, Lucero is from Memphis, and that probably means listening to Stax stuff played a big role in their musical upbringing. That doesn't mean they should attempt to emulate it. All it does for this record is further take away any edge the band's sound used to have, rendering it completely dull. There is not one song on this album that I care to hear again, and if a different approach had been taken to its recording, it could have been a completely different story. Unfortunately, since this is the band's major label debut and they seem to be getting a push from Universal, it will probably sell fairly well, and they will continue to go in this direction. I remember something similar happening with Drive By Truckers; they were a great band, and then overnight they got really boring and started playing shows packed with dickhead frat boys. Now they've been at that point for so long that I almost forgot how much I liked them the first time I heard Pizza Deliverance. There's still time for Lucero to right the ship; unfortunately, I think they're going to wind up lost at sea.

If there is one positive to take from this album, it's that Ted Hutt could probably introduce Ben Nichols to his former bandmate, Dave King. And then Nichols could tell King about how he's not influenced by Uncle Tupelo, and King can tell Nichols about how he's not influenced by The Pogues, and they're probably the only two people in the world who would actually believe each other. They could be BFFs or perhaps soul mates. In fact, the thought of it is starting to conjure up images of Jon Lovitz and Tom Hanks on SNL in the pathological liars sketches.

Yeah, Lucero is one trick pony. The real bummer is that after listening to 1372 Overton Park, you don't get a picture of how good they can actually be at that trick under the right set of circumstances.