Guitar-slinging singer Nikki Lane moonlights as a model and vintage fashion bargain-hunter, but knuckles down to her music. The Nashville-based South Carolina native begins her second album of country much as she means to go on, with a hell-for-leather proclamation that “it’s always the right time to do the wrong thing”. That sense of mischief and carefree abandon floats through most of All or Nothin’, centred on the tingles of newfound love, searing heartbreak and impulsive casual sex. Lane manages to sound like both Lykke Li and Loretta Lynn, mixing saloon-ready arrangements with vulnerable and confessional lyrics. Lilting steel guitar lines snake over most songs on the album, and add a particularly languid and retro dimension to Good Man, Out of My Mind and Seein’ Double. When she duets with album producer and Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach on Love’s on Fire, Lane sounds comfortable and confident – dayjobs and side-hustles be damned.
