Drive-By Truckers has taken up the mantle of Southern rock more than most, and like their predecessors, they know that there is more than one way to write a song. Enter English Oceans, the band’s 10th album and one that finds them dialing back the guitar and the energy for a more low-key, introspective approach.
Part of that is due to Mike Cooley’s increased presence here; normally turning in two or three songs an album, here he gets half the disc and is more involved in the rest of the songs (although credited to the whole band, frontman Patterson Hood is the chief songwriter). As in the past – and with any good Southern-based music – the lyrics focus on characters and the songs are evocative of time, place, feeling, allowing the listener to vicariously live these lives and imagine these people that live right next door but hang out at the bar a lot.
There’s a little bit of country in the music, but much of it is inspired by Neil Young and Crazy Horse (as in the intimate relationship story of “When He’s Gone”) and mid-period Rolling Stones (the fun straight-up rock opener “Shit Shots Count”). The jaunty alt-country of “Made Up English Oceans” is a highlight in its evisceration of cowards: “Once you grab them by the pride their hearts are bound to follow / Their natural fear of anything less manly or less natural / Like gunless sheriffs caught on lonesome roads and live to tell it / How hard it is for meaner men without the lead to sell it.”
Granted, the laidback approach means a few of the songs sort of drift by, part of the orange haze, not detracting from it but not adding much either. Still, a coworker of mine who heard this as I listened at work said it sounded like nothing that gets played on the radio, and to me that is a compliment.
Like any Truckers platter, this will satisfy fans of both rock and country, and although not every song is essential listening, the best of this shows a band branching out and finding new ways to explore its sound. Fans may miss the energy that comprised past Truckers releases, but this is not the music for the party; instead, it’s the soundtrack for the cleanup, the drive home at sunset, the hot weekend with nothing to do but drive in Jimmy’s truck listening to his band and talk about the lady who lives down the street from you both. In that sense, it’s the soundtrack to our everyday conversations, and that makes it timeless.
