A few years ago, Bully was reformatted to act as a solo effort for singer/songwriter Alicia Bognanno. This new approach gifted us with 2020’s stellar SUGAREGG, a 12-track exploration into an artist who has built a discography centered on vulnerability and thrashing arrangements. Being a producer herself, Bognanno wasted no time creating a sound that pulls from personal experiences just as much as it does from grunge and melodic punk. Here we have Bognanno’s fourth album as Bully and second, since the band became a one-woman show. Lucky For You features Bully’s signature wall-of-sound style production that is only penetrated by sweeping melodies and brutally pessimistic yet truthful lyrics. For 10 tracks, Bognanno takes us through her personal journey of grief that birthed the heart-piercing poeticism that courses through Lucky For You, all while continuing to prove that her guitar prowess has infinite potential.
Bognanno has cultivated a fearless approach to writing that gives Bully its unique depth. Lucky For You features some of the most potent lyrics of their careers, penning a doomsday device for people like Bognanno who yearn to separate themselves from the anxieties of everyday life. These songs reach out of your speakers and violently shake you awake, leaning on the subjects of pain, loss, and frustration with oneself and the world all at once. Songs like “Ms. America” and “All This Noise”, while sonically different with the latter using a far more aggressive tone, both songs hold up a mirror to a society ablaze with Bognanno looking in from the outside. “Few things are bleaker than impermanence when joy begins” is how the artist welcomes us to track 4, “Hard To Love”. This specific line sticks out as a centerpiece for the LP, insinuating that the darkness that fuels this album lingers over Bognanno even at the artist’s happiest and turns that mirror 180 degrees for a more self-reflecting track. The artist digs deep into these self-analyzing moments, creating the sonic equivalent of that pit in your stomach when you get bad news.
Don’t take these downtrodden lyrics as a sign of weakness from the bold musician. Her words could move mountains and while these lyrics center around the negative, they are being used for a positive. Bognanno channels her frustration with the glacial pace of the grieving process into lyrics that hit like a bad hangover but are present as therapy for not only the artist but for anyone who listens. Lucky For You gives a voice to the voiceless to put a cliche on it and that voice is elevated by hyperfocused distortion.
Bognanno teamed up with super-producer J.T. Daly to bring her sonic direction to a whole new level. Lucky For You is bursting with a rainbow of pop-punk and late-nineties rock that reveal more modern tropes with every listen. Bognanno’s guitar playing is fiercer than ever as she crafts slick guitar rhythms that are matched with Daly’s expansive sound. Whether it’s her harmonica that closes out “A Wonderful Life” or Daly’s neck-breaking drumming on “Lose You”, the pair play off of each other seamlessly. Daly easily slides into Bully’s sound, helping smooth out the edges of and craft some of the crispest production Bully has ever written to.
Lucky For You allows Alicia Bognanno to process her despair, creating a project that acts as a love letter to the long-sought-after end of the grieving process. Her artistic identity is on full display with each individual talent reaching a height we haven’t seen from Bully, and it appears there is no ceiling to hold her back. For 10 potent tracks, Bognanno opens up her most private journal and allows even her deepest secrets and gloomiest of truths to reveal themselves with staggering confidence. With a bed of harmonious punk and masterful musicianship for her songwriting, Lucky For You demands your attention and once you’ve surrendered yourself to Alicia Bognanoo’s world, you’ll never want to leave.
