LANCO: Hallelujah Nights

Formed 5 years ago, LANCO first teased audiences with the imaginatively named Extended Play at the start of 2016.

The four song EP enticed listeners, who responded positively when they released their first official single Long Live Tonight.

A modest hit on Country radio in the US, nobody would have predicted that their next release would make the very top of the US country charts.

Featured on hit Netflix series, The Ranch, the beautiful Greatest Love Story set hearts racing and piled the pressure on the quintet to deliver a debut album that met the high expectations.

With the group speculated to be making an appearance at Country2Country later this year, British fans are being treated to a UK release date that coincides with the US release, meaning their wait has today come to an end. So can LANCO deliver the compelling collection that they have anticipated?

The simple answer is yes. While Country music hs been re-shaped immensely over the last few years, with a notable influence coming from the Hip Hop world, it is interesting to hear a Country group whose sound is more shaped by Britpop that it is any American sound.

Although it has to be admitted that LANCO played their best card very early on, with the album not providing a song to outshine their #1 single, it is a cohesive and interesting collection of insightfully written songs that will have you humming along in no time at all.

While there are a couple of songs that slightly miss the mark, most notably the messy We Do, they are outshone by the tracks that really do work. With a British vibe on Trouble Maker, the group steer fully away from Country to deliver the second most powerful track on the collection. Equally impressive is So Long (I Do), a song which returns to the infectious Country rock that their fans are desperate to hear.

Hallelujah Nights may not be quite the album their fans had expected, but it is still a striking release that they will enjoy adding to their collection.