This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
“I wanna stay here in this moment,” says Melissa Etheridge, and she’s not kidding.
Lucky, the eighth studio album from this earnest heartland roots-rocker, finds her same as she ever was. Bands come and go, musical trends rise and fall, whole genres emerge and become extinct, but Etheridge, bless her heart, sticks to her guns, strapping on her acoustic guitar and cranking out the same chest-thumping working-class anthems album after album, year after year, and decade after decade.
Which is not to say that Lucky is just a Xerox of her last disc; after the sombre breakup-album song-cycle of Skin, this upbeat affair is something of a raucous rebirth, with strummy pop numbers like the title cut and If You Want To, crunchy power ballads like This Moment and Breathe, and chunky power-chord roots-rockers like Secret Agent, Giant and Come on Out Tonight. Sure, there are a few weepy ballads here and there, but never mind; on the whole, Etheridge’s Lucky is the biggest winner she’s had in quite some time.
