"Give It A Try" opens the album with a hapless protagonist realizing his chances of landing the lady occupy that narrow strip between slim and none. "I can tell by the look in your eyes, you've already planned your goodbyes," Willy Braun muses. "Save Me From Myself" makes a valiant case for the good old days before there were either the government or corporations cared that their actions might result in someone's death. While his message that mistakes teach people as much as perfection, the songs loses the plot a bit when forced to admit that survival without safety nets is often a matter of luck and happenstance. Reckless Kelly is at their worst when they try to burrow into the female brain and report back on what they find there. "Guarded Heart" plays like a slightly superior equal to "Nobody's Girl." The albums slowish start ends with "She Likes Money, He Likes Love." "They'll stay together, 'til they find something better," Willie Braun belts on the ballad about a gold digger and her sugar daddy. the only thing the song lacks is any reason we should care about the walking cliche of a couple. Todd Snider co-wrote "I Never liked Saint Valentine," bringing a world weary sense of satire with him. "You know some saints ain't that saintly and that fine," Braun muses before going on to snarl "At least they don't come around once a year to remind me I don't have a Valentine." "Weatherbeaten Soul" starts off with the goodbye promised in "Give It A Try," with a wife kicking out a husband more married to the road than to a life with her. "It doesn't take too long to pack when an empty seat holds everything you own," Braun observes, "after all I'm probably better off alone." The title track (Listen) finds the band piping in like a country-politian Stooges as the protagonist tries to makes sense of an especially passionate one night stand. "It not good luck" Braun asserts. "I don't believe in good luck," his band affirms. "I Stayed Up All Night" soars as the one of the best songs on the album, with the band playing a luscious country two step behind Willy Braun's heartbroken vocal and haunting harmony from Dani Flowers. "Don't worry about me I'll be all right, maybe I'll write a number one one of these nights," Braun sings, piecing together a long an hazy night of drunken songwriting. "New Moon Over Nashville" is quite possibly the best song the band has ever done. Cody Braun's fiddle plays over his brother's voice at its most melodic. The song is an epic ballad that manages to capture a career arc from hopefully arrival to passed over has in a matter of three and a half minutes. Good Luck & Bad Luck closes on a marginally less stellar note with "Hit the Ground Running." It is a song that meshes the most generic of the band's country-rock melodies with some of its most clichéd writing.
Reckless Kelly are on the verge of being the best band in country music today. Their best songs speak to every day hopes and dreams with a voice that can haunt the soul. The fuse the grit of Haggard with the musicality of Campbell and the sensibility of hank Williams Junior, while creating a sound that is entirely their own. Unfortunately, they something get in their own way, unable to overcome their own ruts. They have trouble digging into either the humor of the pathos that will help them elevate their music. Their album are often filled with songs that come across as average. However, their bar for average is quite a lot higher than nearly anyone else making music today. Good Luck & True Love is not the classic album that fans know Reckless Kelly has in them, but it is close enough to carry listeners through for now.
Buy (Amazon): mp3 album | CD Album | Vinyl Album
*Note: Amazon mp3 downloads work with every mp3 player and now phones. We hope you support the band by purchasing the music and by doing so from these links, we get a small percentage of the sale as well.
0 Comments