add 1098 Erik Truffaz

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add 1097 Marc Ribot

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add 1096 Lucero

Memphis, Tennessee's Lucero gained immeasurably when they added keyboard ace Rick Steff to their ranks in 2006. Steff is deeply rooted in their native city's musical heritage. As evidenced from their brief romance with Universal on 1372 Overton Park, he added a touch of Memphis' soul and R&B traditions to Lucero's rocking alt-country and barroom boogie. On Women & Work, their ATO debut, they step even deeper into Memphis traditions. Working once again with producer Ted Hutt at Ardent, the sextet has been augmented by the horns of Memphis' Jim Spake (Al Green) and Scott Thompson (Ray Charles, Solomon Burke). That said, Lucero still sound like no one but themselves; it's as if this sound was always there just waiting for them to mature enough to let it breathe. Ben Nichols' songwriting is as homespun and sharp as ever. His protagonists are the same romantic, hard-bitten characters that real life exudes in spades, and he has a way of twisting acceptance into a refusal to accept defeat. On the brief intro to "On My Way Downtown," the album's opener, he rasps with a young Marlon Brando's bravado: "I know the last time we drank, I was a little less than behaved/But come on out tonight. Oh I'll be good tonight." As the song kicks into gear with a B-3, an upright piano, and guitarist Brain Venable's woolly I-IV-V progression, the horns kick in hard. When Nichols sings: "When you're around, I'm more the man I should be....." it's as if he's convinced, and she will be too. The title track is a choogling, bar stomping drinking song with '50s-style barrelhouse rock piano from guest Rick Jeffries. The band's trademark alt-country is tinged by Memphis soul on "It May Be Too Late." Nichols' wayward protagonist wants his woman back in the worst way despite his wandering ways. As is typical, his final reasoning for her to return is twisted -- with souled-out horns blazing, he sings: "Maybe the best way...For you to save me..Is by letting me save you." Only Nichols can turn lines like that and get away with them. Southern-fried boogie is evident in "Juniper" and "Like Lightning" (with a dynamite female backing chorus on the latter). And Lucero may never get closer to straight Memphis soul than on the greasy "Who You Waiting On?" The closer, "Go Easy," is an affirmative country song that eventually builds itself up with a gospel chorus -- complete with choir! Intensity rises with repetition; piano, organ, guitars, and low slung tom-toms all erect it. Nichols' growl in front of that choir becomes awe-inspiring. Women & Work is the sound of a mature, confident band, fully embracing their hometown's musical legacy, and wrapping it inside their own sound, making each both larger and deeper. All killer, no filler.
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add 1095 The Gaslight anthem

There's always been something a little nostalgic about the earnest, rust belt rock of the Gaslight Anthem, and it wouldn't be unfair to say that the band has been looking to the past with a laser focus on the rugged songwriting of New Jersey's favorite son, Bruce Springsteen. On Get Hurt, the fifth studio album from the Garden State rockers, the band expand their influences to create what might be their most unique album to date. Exploring the rock sounds of the '70s, the band show off their versatility as they take listeners on a guided tour of the LP bins of the day. Opening with a droning riff culled straight from the annals of classic stoner rock, the first track, "Stay Vicious," makes it clear that something very different is happening here. Given their past work, the last thing anyone would expect from the band is to open up their album with dirty, fuzz-covered guitars, but somehow they make it work. Further in, the searing leads and yearning vocals of "Helter Skeleton" feel like an homage to the starry-eyed power pop of Cheap Trick. No matter what sound they're using for a framework, though, the Gaslight Anthem always find themselves returning to these little moments of quiet honesty, stripping away the swagger to expose the emotional core at the center of their music. Delicate tracks like "Underneath the Ground" reveal that the real essence of the Gaslight Anthem's sound isn't sonic so much as it is emotional. Get Hurt shows that so long as they're passionate about their music, it doesn't matter where the band are getting their inspiration from, because genuinely caring about something is always compelling.

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add 1094 Lyle Lovett

Some 27 years after Lyle Lovett signed with Curb Records he brings the association to an end with Release Me, a collection of covers and oddities to usher the singer out of his contract. Lyle makes no bones about his departure, not with the album's title or its cover of Lovett tied up in a lariat, but for as misshapen and wooly as it is, Release Me actually doesn't play like a contractual obligation. Sure, Lovett may have only two writing credits among these 14 songs and both of the cuts are holiday tunes, but the appeal of Release Me is that it's decidedly messier than Lyle has allowed himself to be on record. And it's a mess with purpose, too: the album touches upon nearly every style Lovett has tried on since he signed with Curb in 1985, so it's a summation yet it lacks pretension. His good humor is evident throughout, surfacing not only on the randy good humor of "The Girl with the Holiday Smile," but infusing the rollicking, loose-limbed rhythms of the rest of the record. There are a handful of slower, contemplative moments, but Release Me is an unquestioned celebration where the blues are the soundtrack for a good time and Chuck Berry's "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man" is slowed down to a knowing, soulful crawl. There's an ease to Release Me that's utterly charming -- Lovett is relaxing into the songs and sounds he loves, and he hasn't sounded like so much fun in years.

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sdd 1093 Lyle Lovett

While Lyle Lovett's self-titled debut album made it clear he was one the most gifted and idiosyncratic talents to emerge in country music in the 1980s, his follow-up, 1987's Pontiac, took the strengths of his first disc and refined them, and the result was a set whose sound and feel more accurately reflected Lovett's musical personality. While much of Pontiac favors the country side of Lovett's musical personality, the bouncy swing of "Give Back My Heart" and the weepy stroll of "Walk Through the Bottomland" have a lighter touch that suits them noticeably better than the stiffer production and arrangements of the first album, while the breezy snap of "L.A. County" serves as a perfect contrast to the tune's violent dénouement. The second half of the album gives Lovett a chance to indulge his fondness for jazz and blues flavors on the cynical "She's No Lady," "M-O-N-E-Y," and "She's Hot to Go," and if Lovett would follow this path with great musical success on his next few albums, he was already traveling in the right direction and the songs and the arrangements are aces. And it's all but impossible to imagine anyone being given a big push by a major label in Nashville who could get away with the fanciful whimsy of "If I Had a Boat" and the stark and unsettling character sketch of "Pontiac" on the same album. If Lyle Lovett left any doubts at all about this man's gifts as a performer and songwriter, Pontiac proved that he had even more tricks up his sleeve than he'd let on first time out, and it's the first of several masterpieces in Lovett's career.

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add 1092 Spoon

The band's first album in four years is a concise return that's too complex to be considered back-to-basics.

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