Twenty-plus years into their country-punk career and Memphis’s Lucero make this follow-up to 2018’s Among The Ghosts sound just so damn easy. Like the portentous soundtrack to some gothic southern film noir, When You Found Me simply drips dark cinematic charm.
Book-ended by menacing slow-burning opener Have You Lost Your Way and the delicate acoustic shimmer of the title track, the album travels full circle through themes revolving around family, loss, redemption, Irish folktales and mainman Ben Nichols’s daughter’s bedtime fairy stories.
With Nichols’s whisky-ravaged drawl sounds absolutely perfect on Outrun The Moon, Coffin Nails, Good As Gone, The Match and All My Life, all compelling minor-key dramas packed with musical detail and heavy tension.
When You Found Me combines top-notch musicianship and expert songcraft with bags of brooding atmosphere, with Lucero clearly at the top of their southern-rocking game.
