There is a magic to the story of The Delines’ foundation. Willy Vlautin, singer-songwriter with Richmond Fontaine, heard Amy Boone of The Damnations sing one ballad. So struck was he by her voice that he secretly wrote her songs for over a year before approaching her and asking to form a band. Fortunately, she was impressed and their working partnership began. This background feels apt as The Delines are a band steeped in storytelling, each song being a miniature short story with lyrics containing clearly defined and usually named characters, often eschewing the rhyming schemes and choruses of most pop songs. Vlautin displays the qualities that have resulted in him having seven novels published, three of which have been adapted into films and have seen him described by Ursula Le Guin as “an unsentimental Steinbeck… tells us who really lives in our America now”.
The theme that emerges in ‘Mr Luck & Ms Doom’ is of ragged couples on the run, their lives often unravelling because of poverty, addiction, incarceration and bad decisions made at a young age. It is accompanied by some immaculately controlled and arranged country soul music topped with the world-weary tones of Boone narrating the action. The title-track which opens proceedings emerged from her request for Vlautin to provide a song in which none of the protagonists died or suffered any major misfortune. Even an upbeat Delines song involves tough times as ironically Mr Luck’s name derives from doing four years for his first crime, first bust. However, the romantic partnership that ensues with Ms Doom upon his release sees him “save her from her self-inflicted ruin” while they “wear out every mattress in every room”. These naturalistic observations blend perfectly with the gentle horn swells and keyboards of Cory Gray’s arrangements which are another facet that make the band so appealing.
Optimism does not last long and ‘Her Ponyboy’ is a tale of shooting dope, casual work on fishing boats and pecan farms and a grisly denouement with a needle in the arm. Again, the music is exquisite, the arrangement measured and immaculate, some twangy guitar from Vlautin adding to the mood. Musically, ‘Left Hook Like Frazier’ is the most immediately memorable song, all organ runs and horn stabs, a cautionary tale of broken-hearted women latching onto men who perpetuate the cycle of ill-fortune, including one who “had a wife and kids a left hook like Frazier and words that hit just as hard”.
‘Sitting On The Curb’ initially feels insubstantial but its tale of conflagration, a home being destroyed (“What took years to build a single match can bring it all to the ground”) is matched by the mood creating guitar and piano while Boone’s delivery sounds especially resigned. The slow and brooding ‘There’s Nothing Down The Highway’ is even bleaker in its story of a woman running from a place but discovering that she can never escape from herself. Sean Oldham’s drum brushes set the funereal pace.
With its relaxed harmonies and slightly mournful horns, ‘Don’t Miss Your Bus Lorraine’ raises the musical mood even though its content is full of bitter irony as its central character returns from serving a sentence for marijuana convictions to a town where possession is now legal but as a felon she is unable to find work. ‘The Haunting Thoughts’ finds the narrator waking from nightmares at three every morning, trying to block out every wreck she sees and think about beauty while aptly the music conjures a subtle gorgeousness.
There is a definite Bobbie Gentry vibe to ‘Nancy & the Pensacola Pimp’. Again, there is a rare level of detail and economy to the lyrics (he was “6-5 and a 110 Drank nothing but Orange Crush and ate powdered donuts”) as well as a vengeful ending. Blessed with a rousing chorus, ‘Maureen’s Gone Missing’ tells of a woman who robs a drug operation and leaves town, Freddy Trujillo’s bassline combined with organ suggesting a glimmer of Booker T and the MGs’ ‘Time is Tight’.
‘JP and Me’ starts off as a bar room ballad before being elevated by the horn section and introduces a cast of ne’er-do-wells like one legged Carl and busted up Sid. For an album that is rich in storytelling, it is odd that it ends with the 90-second snippet, ‘Don’t Go Into That House’ which merely repeats that instruction to Lorraine, albeit with an increasing sense of foreboding.
‘Mr Luck & Ms Doom’ is a compelling album. Being released on Valentine’s Day feels mischievous as the songs are shorn of happy ever after romanticism. However, they do transcend poverty voyeurism building a real empathy for the characters while the arrangements wring maximum value from their traditional country soul roots.
The Delines: Mr Luck & Ms Doom – Out 14 February 2025 (Décor Records)
Delines – Left Hook Like Frazier – [Official Music Video]
I was editor of the long-running fanzine, Plane Truth, and have subsequently written for a number of publications. While the zine was known for championing the most angular independent sounds, performing in recent years with a community samba percussion band helped to broaden my tastes so that in 2021 I am far more likely to be celebrating an eclectic mix of sounds and enthusing about Made Kuti, Anthony Joseph, Little Simz and the Soul Jazz Cuban compilations as well as Pom Poko and Richard Dawson.
