New Album Review: Lucero- Should’ve Learned By Now

Lucero- Should’ve Learned By Now

Label: Liberty & Lament

Producer: Matt Ross-Spang

The long-revered and rowdy Memphis favorites return with their twelfth studio album, and after a stretch of LPs that slanted ever so slightly in the more reflective direction both sonically and topically, Should’ve Learned By Now points the band back toward the harder and louder edges of their Southern Rock and cowpunk roots. And it does so rather emphatically with the aggressively booming guitar, generous cowbell, and the harsh, gruff growl that is lead vocalist Ben Nichols’ signature, which all positively explode from the speakers on opening cut, “One Last F.U.”, a bawdy and unrelenting barroom brawl account that plants Lucero squarely back in their most essential elements. This is a jolting rock adrenaline rush in all the classic rock & roll ways. It demands to be played as loud as your walls can possibly handle, and is likewise tailor-made for a rowdy live concert experience once it’s brought to life on the summer tour circuit. Singles like “Buy A Little Time”, the title track and “Macon If We Make It” are as exhilarating as any rock jam that I’ve heard released in the past decade, and further illustrate what an absolutely bad-ass guitar God the band has in Brian Venable, with the brilliant piano flourishes of Rick Steff proving to be his perfect foil. Those classic, emotional rock contradictions meanwhile become pure hellfire when filtered through Nichols’ chops, which have become only increasingly blood-curdling through the years, a trait as evident as ever when exhibited in the more pure punk spirit of this album. Conversely, his ragged voice is likewise as cutting as its ever been in the rare moments when the band does slow down the tempo, as on the shuffling, country-tinged loneliness of “Drunken Moon”, a moment where Steff’s piano magic also gets its ultimate showcase. Protests are likely to crop up as they wrap up the record with another more stripped moment on the accordion-driven “Time to Go Home”, not because of the heart-warming lane change in the album’s eleventh hour, but rather due to the fact that the eleventh hour has arrived at all. Should’ve Learned By Now zooms by thanks to its surging, electric energy and thus leaves the listener both euphoric but also desperately starving for more.

Track Listing:

1. “One Last F.U.” (Ben Nichols)
2. “Macon If We Make It” (Nichols)
3. “She Leads Me” (Nichols)
4. “At the Show” (Nichols)
5. “Nothing’s Alright” (Nichols)
6. “Raining For Weeks” (Nichols)
7. “Buy A Little Time” (Nichols)
8. “Should’ve Learned By Now” (Nichols)
9. “Drunken Moon” (Nichols)
10. “Time to Go Home” (Nichols)