I can get us out of here tonight

A friend of mine told me I should check out the new song from Memphis alt-country rockers Lucero over at Muzzle of Bees, and it has just made my musical month.

This is an advance track from Lucero’s upcoming September release Rebels, Rogues, and Sworn Brothers, and I will have a hard time waiting until then to hear the rest of this album. Not to shortchange Lucero with endless comparisons, but to me it’s like the best signatures of a young, urgent Springsteen written all over this song. When Ben Nichols sings “I can get us out of here tonight,” it’s that same burning twinge that Springsteen makes you feel in your soul that makes you want to throw caution to the wind, roll down the windows, and take off on the interstate.

I Can Get Us Out Of Here Tonight – Lucero

Gritty rock-guitar riffs pair with a thumping drumbeat that wildly echoes your own on that first date, with vocals that capture that manic raspy quality of Westerberg. While it doesn’t exactly compare with the poetic perfection & richness, the lyrical imagery echoes some of my favorite Springsteen creations like the dancing across the porch of “Thunder Road,” all the madness in my soul of “Born to Run.” There’s a sweetly-named girl (Jenny, Wendy, Mary, irrelevant), a fast car, and a need to escape.

Listen at 3:41 when the electric guitar cuts out, leaving just the sweetly nostalgic piano and these lyrics:

“Jenny lights her cigarette, wonders how she got in this mess
Saturday night, wrong side of town
Set em up, knock em down
Well come on babe, don’t look so sad
You know it ain’t half that bad . . .”

The way he sings it, I am in love. “Don’t look back, don’t hesitate. The car’s outside, we can’t wait. . . I can get us out of here tonight.” Let’s go. The night’s busting open, these two lanes will take us anywhere.