Rating: 8/10
From the opening guitar riff of the title track, quiet at first and ever building into this album’s first song, I was drawn in by Lucero’s latest record. It’s been a hard album for which to find the words, and yet it’s not been an album that had to grow on me in any sense. Rather, it’s just a record where I’ve listened so many times and found myself taken out of a place of critical comment, or really comment altogether, and just into a place of reflection.
It’s difficult to put into words because this album’s greatest strength is in the music, the chemistry of Lucero as a band after twenty years together, and the darkness that permeates this whole record as its title would suggest. Most of these songs are delivered in minor keys, befitting the somber nature of a good majority of this record. Instrumentally, it’s one of the best albums I’ve heard all year, bringing engaging melodies and certainly incredible musical arrangements. At this stage of their career, Lucero could be complacent, or they could have exhausted their creative abilities and resorted to releasing stale, lifeless music. But just like Old Crow Medicine Show earlier this year, this band delivers an album that still sounds fresh, drawing on that chemistry forged from years together for one of this album’s greatest assets. It’s the killer guitar chords in “Everything Has Changed” and “Long Way Back Home” and the beautiful piano in “Always Been You” that make these songs come alive. It’s the surprise of that saxophone coming out in the closer, “For the Lonely Ones,” which makes that song go from average to instantly one of the standouts of the whole album. And Ben Nichols’ delivery, always rough and raw and gritty, adds something intangible to the mood of this album that just naturally makes it all work better. It’s hard to put something like this on paper, for the joy of the experience comes in listening and capturing the album’s mood.
That’s not to say that the lyrics here aren’t memorable; you just don’t keep replaying the album for its lyrics. Still, there are moments like the introspective “Bottom of the Sea” and the quietly sincere “Loving” where the writing really shines. Themes of love and family, particularly the tension between staying at home with family and being on the road, echo throughout. This is first introduced in the opener and title track, the most personal song here for Nichols, as he sings about leaving his wife and daughter and says that his daughter’s first word was “goodbye.” “To My Dearest Wife” feels much the same, only less autobiographical, as it’s framed from the point of view of a soldier missing his loved ones while on the front lines. “Long Way Back Home” sees two brothers doing all they can to survive, even if it means breaking the law. “Always been You” and “Loving” carry the themes of love and reconciliation, bringing hope to this mostly sobering affair. For all the hope in the lyrics, though, there’s that haunting sense of fear which runs heavily through this; perhaps it’s a fear of losing the people and things that are important, the ones that really matter most in this life. Ben Nichols has spoken of this, of a shift in his perspective since having a daughter, and it’s certainly reflected in the writing here.
But as I say, words can’t really do justice to this particular album, and although it deserved words, the real beauty comes from hearing it. It’s great to see Lucero return to more of the harder rock style that made them popular in the early days of their career, a sound from which they’d departed some on their last several records. If you’ve been missing that style from this band, Among the Ghosts is certainly a welcome return to form. It’s a record which is instantly replayable, especially if you like darker material. It encapsulates what people love about Lucero in the first place, and why they’re still going strong after twenty years. Maybe not the album for everyone here because this leans heavily toward the rock end of the spectrum and because of the darker feel, but for the right audience, Among the Ghosts is a great listen.