Republic
2009
1372 Overton Park
About This Album
1372 Overton Park might be Lucero's major-label debut, but the Memphis-based band retains all of their rough-and-tumble indie charms. Gruff-voiced frontman Ben Nichols still sings about people with dead-end lives: the type of characters whose "heroes are the losing kind." But Nichols definitely finds ways to make these troubled souls compelling. The disc starts off with a powerful quartet of hard-rockin' tunes about hard-livin' folks. The album opener "Smoke" plays like a darker version of "Born to Run." Instead of kids holding onto some hope that they can escape to something better, the couple in "Smoke" are two pretty hopeless people "running out of time" and looking to "just get out alive." The Replacements-ish "What Are You Willing to Lose?" talks about trying to persevere when you're "going down in flames." It also introduces Nichols' backhanded sense of romance when the protagonist tries to win over a girl with an "I'd try to make you hate me just to try and make you mine" approach. "Sounds of the City" offers a slightly more upbeat attitude to romance. The album's most rousing track finds Nichols sweet-talking a girl ("all these streets lead me always back to you.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,7 and 9)

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