With her raspy voice and big shouty delivery, Etheridge has always sounded like a female Rod Stewart or John Cougar Mellencamp. Since releasing her self-titled debut in 1988 she has more or less followed the same stylistic path – a mix of mid-western bar-band rockers and ballsy ballads. Lucky pretty much continues the formula, albeit with a renewed sense of purpose and stronger tunes following the poor reception for 2001’s more downbeat Skin.
The catchy Sheryl Crow-ish title track sets the template for most of what follows here, and along with similarly constructed tracks like ‘Breath’ and ‘Come On Out Tonight’, Etheridge combines her never less than passionate singing with melodramatic, anthemic choruses. But if the tunes are in the main memorable the lyrics broach every cliché in the book (“I want to drive to the edge and into the sea.”)
Originality was never her strong point and ‘If You Want To’ sounds more than a tad like the Bryan Adams’ hit ‘Run To You’, while ‘This Moment’ sees her in Meat Loaf mode. ‘Tuesday Morning’ is a more sombre reflection on the events of September 11 while the slow-burning ‘Mercy’ is yet another one of those ‘I Will Survive’ kind of songs that she has made her forte over the years.
On balance though, Lucky is hard to recommend unless you’re a committed fan.