DoT EP99: Lucette On Her Americana and Pop Songwriting Influences and New Album Deluxe Hotel Room, plus New Music from Alaskalaska

The Department of Tangents Podcast

This episode was originally planned to be a minicast, but when Lucette and I started diving into her songwriting and her new album, Deluxe Hotel Room, the conversation went a bit longer than I had thought. Which is fantastic, because it means you get to hear more from Lucette about how this album reflects more of her true self as a songwriter, her approach to the arrangements and lyrics, the idea that this is an Americana album lyrically and more of a synth-pop album musically, and how she worked with producer Sturgill Simpson.

As she explains in the conversation, her debut album, Black Is the Color, was much more guitar-driven than Deluxe Hotel Room. It was a fine album and established her as a songwriter to watch, but she also wrote and recorded that when she was very young, and it didn’t necessarily reflect the musical influences she cherished growing up. In between those two albums, she has done a lot of touring and been through hell personally. You can hear that in the isolation and disillusionment on the title track. Simpson, who was an early fan of Lucette’s, just let her be herself in the studio.

To hear more about her and keep up with tour dates and new releases, go to her website at www.lucettemusic.net, search for her on Facebook under lucettemusic, and on Twitter and Instagram under lucettesings.

This week’s featured track is “Tough Love” from Alaskalaska from their debut album The Dots, which came out in May. The first thing I loved about this track was the opening groove, laid back but with a subtle drive to it. And then the contradiction carries over into the lyrics in the opening, “Who gives a shit about anything lately? So glad to meet you?” Then the chorus comes on heavy before it drops back into the groove and that lovely skittering guitar solo around 1:20. Hard to beat a smart, catchy song with a sense of humor. Reminds me a bit of Letters To Cleo, if not in sound, in musical disposition. Check out the trippy video by animator Callum Scott-Dyson, too, which I’ll post on the blog. Find out more about them on their website at Alaskalaskamusic.com or find them on Twitter under alaskalaskaband.