Catchy choruses
and inventive lyrics keep this album afloat. “Any Other Heart” displays both of
these traits, especially with the lyrics. The line”If I could paint the town
with all your good intent/ I’d leave the walls as red as my eyes could have
been,” is just a taste of the lyrical gems on this album. “Why I’m Home,” a
piano ballad where Lancaster’s unique voice and intonation shines, holds the
lines, “I just
don’t think that this will be easy/ saying that you love me /When lying tongues
are clumsy.”

However catchy and
inventive, the problem with this album as a whole is the staleness the sound
takes on. Each song is formulated in essentially the same pattern: verse, chorus,
verse, bridge, and a dramatic version of chorus. Each song may stand on its
own, but in this album setting, they are not distinct and get lost in the
shuffle. They become predictable, too, which adds to their forgetability.

The songs that break
this mold of this pattern are the ones that really shine. “Fight, Fight (Reach
for the Sky)” starts with horns and gives it a latin flair and funky sound that
continues throughout the song. “Forever, My Father,” another piano ballad, has
interesting moments of drums with the piano that makes it different than the
other ballad-like songs on Lucky Street.

While Go Radio
doesn’t fail, this album falls short of being an album with staying power. Each
member of the band contributes to vocals, so the harmonies they produce
definitely set them apart, and Lancaster’s ability to create emotional,
personal songs is probably what garnered him (and his bands) fans in the first
place. But Lucky Street is ultimately
a dead-end (or even a cul-de-sac)of an album that fails to deliver fresh songs
from track to track and seems to reach for a formula.

3/5 stars