Herring Boys - Lucky Number Seven (CD)

All Music Guide

On Lucky Number Seven, veteran Champaign, IL bar rockers the Herring Boys fall somewhere between the dusky yearn of Let Me Come Overera Buffalo Tom and Counting Crows' robust pop. With the brokedown grace of a thousand nights spent in the tavern, they expertly mix grainy distortion with wry lyrics and country tinge with bold string overtures. Mouthpiece and principal songwriter Paul Kotheimer channels Adam Duritz's jaded whine on "Getting My Act Together", while "Don't Call Me" adds a bit of '60s pop flair to its straightforward rock push. Best is "Last Time We See Each Other", which builds from acoustic melancholia and Kotheimer singing dejectedly into his lapel into a brace of basic but effective power chords, the high swelling lilt of chirping violins, and the ultimate summer evening line, "just you and me and an 8track player".

- Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide