DeadJournalist.com Album Reviews

Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers - Lucero

by Lauren Fincher
12.03.06

This one will be a little more on the serious side due to the fact that I adore this band and have been following them for a number of years and have spent the equivalent of six months rent at the 12 shows I've been to. (I swear I don't have a drinking problem - I just turn into the beer fairy when I get a buzz.)

With Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers being their fifth album, I was very skeptical about what I was in for. I was skeptical because - and someone will probably smack me for saying this, but oh well - I haven't been a fan of anything they've put out since That Much Further West. Another reason I found myself nervous about this release was because a little birdie who had the opportunity to hear the album months before it was released informed me that this album was going to be "Born to Run without the horns".

Okay, with that being said, you might understand why I was feeling like a little kid trying to go to sleep on Christmas Eve. Born to Run is probably hands down one of my all time favorite albums. Hell, anyone that's into Lucero probably views Born to Run as one of their all time favorite albums as well.

Lucero had placed a couple of their news songs up on their MySpace page a month or so before the release of the entire album and at first listen I found myself saying "WFT is this shit, this isn't Born to Run!" Well, after some lurking around on the interweb and my favorite downloading site (which will remain nameless) I was finally able to get the album in its entirety.

Hell, I thought I was pulling off another miracle in getting an album leak before its release but apparently those sneaky bastards had made some deal with people that if you purchased their album before its release you would be able to download the entire thing before everyone else.

Lucero 1, Lauren 0.

Getting back on track now. After giving the entire album what I like to call a 30 second listen I decided that this in fact was going to be worse than the last album Nobody's Darlings. I was beyond over Lucero and even joined in on the bashing of the new album in some conversations.

This was one of the more idiotic things that I'll own up to doing this year. I have this horrible habit of judging pretty much everything upon first glance/listen. I write albums/bands/people off all the time just because of being so damn stubborn.

One drunken night I decided to give the album one more shot. I can't tell if it was the alcohol talking or if I just really decided to open my ears up, but this time around the album actually made me regret any and every negative thing I had ever said about the album. True, it wasn't the same sad bastard sound that put Lucero on the map, but it was damn good.

(If you need reference, please listen to the following Lucero albums: The Attic Tapes, Self Titled and Tennessee.)

This album has raised the bar for any band coming out of Tennessee or anywhere else in the country that's trying to go the route of alt-country/Americana/sad bastard. The song writing on the latest release doesn't stray far from their earlier writings, but the music behind the lyrics has definitely gone in a different direction. It's more of a stomp your feet and clap your hands beat. Which I'll admit is a good time and a good thing if you've seen them live because it's about the only damn thing that's going to keep you moving due to the amount of alcohol yourself and the band has consumed.

I'm not a huge fan of the new crowd this album has attracted. I know that just came out of nowhere, but this has to be said. This will come off very high school music snob, but I've been watching this band along with hundreds of loyal followers for years play in small bars with maybe a crowd of 25 to 50 people. The crowd was diverse, but everyone got along. Old, young, frat boy, scene kid, whatever you want to label them; everyone got drunk and had a good time.

With the latest release we now see a crowd of "kids" that are just that. They are 20 something jerk offs that have no tolerance when consuming massive amounts of alcohol and go straight into "bro" mode where they think it's hilarious to rush the crowd and knock people over and talk shit to people that aren't of their group of friends.

Bitter? Why yes. Jaded? A tad bit. Over it? HELL YES.

I won't make this entire review about the new crowd, but I’ll say one last thing just because I like to have the last word:

A) Don't come to a Lucero show hoping you'll be able to rough up some kid you used to see sitting in your art class that wasn't in the popular crowd.

B) Don't come to a Lucero show with the thought in your head that you've just discovered the next big thing and you don't care who you piss off by spilling your beer all over them. They've been around for awhile now and your kind isn't welcome.

With that being said, I’m going to give this album a 9/10. I'm only deducting one point because of the fact I had to endure two hours of complete dipshit kids that don't know their ass from a hole in the ground to watch my favorite band a couple of weeks ago.