My belated introduction to Lucero was via their 2018 release ‘Among The Ghosts’ which proved to be one of the very best releases of that year. The tone was dark, the sound widescreen and the songs dragged you in and held on tight. I was lucky enough to catch Lucero at the Black Deer Festival in 2019 where on a bright sunny afternoon deep in the English countryside their songs proved equally effective as they would in a sweaty club. It was a powerful, gritty performance that reinforced my opinion that Lucero is at the top of their game. For the follow up to ‘Ghosts’ frontman Ben Nichols has expanded on the third-person, character-driven approach that had crept into his writing for ‘Ghosts’. Nichols mixes up family-driven tales of love and redemption firmly rooted in reality with interesting diversions into campfire tales and folklore. The other innovation to the Lucero sound finds Rick Steff employing a host of vintage synth sounds to bolster his usual organ/piano armoury. The resulting album could well turn out to be one of the best records of their career.