The Vasco Era - Lucille

Lucille is the end of a journey of two lovers, Lucille and Sam. With both characters recurring throughout, it's a concept album of sorts, but one which is thoroughly approachable, and without that all-too-common "look at me, I'm a concept album!" vibe.

Lucille, the sophomore release from The Vasco Era sees the group return with a focused approach that has produced a tight album with an overall matured sound for the three-piece.

The Vasco Era are known for their minimalist approach. Keys have been added to the roster with Lucille, used sparingly for effect; organ adding depth and keys adding hooks on a few tracks. The result is to create a Lanois-esque album with space and intimacy, minimal and layered, loud and soft all contradicting and informing one another throughout. It's with this approach that the immensely catchy opening track Not Stuck Here hits you like a freight train straight out of U2's The Joshua Tree.

What follows is a rock album that's not afraid to dabble in pop while also providing more than enough fodder for any fan of the band's blues-informed sound of their first album and EPs. It's executed by a band that has clearly matured musically in the long break between albums. Tighter when they need to be and looser when they need to be, there's a confidence that Lucille greatly benefits from.

Oh Sam is a pulsating, anthemic rock piece, with a catchy sensibility to lyrics that'll just make you smile: "We could buy us a car one of those ones / Like straight from the Bruce Springsteen songs / Are they sold here at the bottom of the world?". Leading from perhaps the biggest song on the album to the smallest, Never Longed For Nothing is a beast of entirely different proportions. Stripped back to its bones, this sparse track features Sid O'Neil  wearing his heart on his sleeve to produce perhaps his strongest vocals to date.

The use of the titular characters feels at times like a subterfuge that gives an opportunity to explore very real emotions. There's no shortage of moments when the lyrics are so vivid they can't not be real: "My idol has become Czolgosz, I'm sorry Bobby Dylan" (Be There Tonight). Dylan himself once said that all the characters in his songs are himself ("I’m not a playwright. The people in my songs are all me."), and with Sid's penchant for Dylan -- covering him frequently live -- this line has a sense of reality to it, and incongruously evoking a presidential assassin in the same breath as a rock 'n roll idol is songwriting at its most idiosyncratic. It's this earnestness that gives these characters credence.

The Vasco Era have produced a truly enjoyable album in Lucille. A band must grow to survive, and this album sees The Vasco Era making leaps and bounds to produce their best work to date.