Better Luck (album)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[11]
LA Weekly	B+[12]

The Los Angeles Times said, "Sounding like a transitional work, Better Luck is an uneven record, the clean studio sound depriving many songs of their potential intensity"; the paper later listed it as the 10th best Los Angeles album of the year.^[8][13] LA Weekly opined, "While lapses are evident—[Tito] Larriva's lyrics are at times uncomfortably close to the X school of poetic anguish—Better Luck is a remarkably vital, astute and listenable record."^[14] The paper, in a year-end holiday guide, noted that the album possessed "too much reserve, too little simplistic punk".^[12] The Argonaut called it "heartfelt but clear-eyed, guitar-driven and spare".^[15]

The Trouser Press Record Guide said, "The more mainstream Better Luck ups the Plugz' folk and country sides for a blend of Rank and File ... and Tom Petty, displaying a promising rock talent enervated to the point of tedium."^[16] In 2018, John Doe listed it as one of the "best punk rock albums ever", calling it an "unbelievable record... Best recorded record."^[17]

Side 1

1. "Better Luck"
2. "Red Eye #9"
3. "Achin'"
4. "American"
5. "In the Wait"
6. "El Clavo y la Cruz"

Side 2

1. "Blue Sofa"
2. "Touch for Cash"
3. "Gas Line"
4. "Cesar's Song"
5. "Shifting Heart"
6. "No Love"