Franz Nicolay - Luck and Courage

Former keyboardist in Brooklyn rockers The Hold Steady, Franz Nicolay continues his improbable reinvention as a troubadour of heartland America on Luck and Courage. A concept album narrating a tragic romance, while simultaneously evoking the rise and fall of what Nicolay describes as “a plague-ridden, Cormac McCarthyian country,” this record is clearly not lacking in scope or ambition.

For the most part, Nicolay pulls it off, aided by a deft command of instrumentation ranging from pedal steel to brass and strings. The best songs here, such as Z for Zachariah, have a kind of gypsy-country fragility to them, underpinned by mournful banjo and drifting organ chords; at other points, Nicolay indulges in more jaunty, Pogues-esque ballads which can go awry (see the closing title track). Nonetheless, there is an impressive maturity in both the album’s construction and lyrical content that plasters over the cracks well enough. [Sam Wiseman]