Jason Isbell is a Twitter god. <\/p>\n
This observation is relevant mostly because in my ignorance, I had never heard of American Aquarium until Mr. Isbell, a master of both songwriting and the sort of sharply-drawn quips that fuel the best Twitter conversations, praised their latest album Lamentations<\/i>. Minutes later I discovered that he had produced the group\u2019s critically acclaimed 2012 album Burn.Flicker.Die.<\/i>, whose success had reinvigorated a band on the verge of calling it quits. And minutes after that this album was in my shopping cart. <\/p>\n
Isbell is also a generous friend; he doesn\u2019t play a note on Lamentations<\/i>, he was just offering his genuine admiration to his 382,000 followers. It\u2019s not hard to see why; American Aquarium frontman and songwriter BJ Barham is from the same school of songwriting: American roots music grounded in the South that\u2019s unflinchingly honest and direct, possessed of a hard-earned wisdom, a sly sense of humor and an overriding sense of purpose. Any list of musical antecedents would necessarily include Whiskeytown, Drive-By Truckers, Isbell himself, and more than a little Springsteen.<\/p>\n
On Lamentations<\/i>, Barham\u2019s songs are brought to life by the ace band of Shane Boeker (guitars), Rhett Huffman (keys), Neil Jones (steel), Ryan Van Fleet (drums), and Alden Hedges (bass), with their superb work burnished to an earthy shine by producer Shooter Jennings. All dedicate themselves to these songs with a near-religious fervor, playing, and featuring, every note that needs to be played, and none that aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Opener \u201cMe + Mine (Lamentations)\u201d sets the tone with a stark, airy, urgent paean to shattered American dreams: \u201cWhat are you supposed to do \/ When the God you\u2019re praying to up and goes missing \/ And leaves a trial of unpaid bills \/ Broken homes and opioid addiction.\u201d Dark and earnest, it\u2019s also full of steely determination, and unafraid to go the extra mile, clocking in at an epic 6:58 after a soaring instrumental coda.<\/p>\n
Second track \u201cBefore The Dogwood Blooms\u201d promptly flips that script and delivers a tight 2:55 gem, a playful, appealing melody supporting an edgy take on a working man\u2019s struggles. Regret again fills the rearview mirror on the haunting \u201cSix Years Come September\u201d framed in a spacious, propulsive arrangement that inevitably reminds of \u201cI\u2019m On Fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bright chords and upbeat rhythm of \u201cStarts With You\u201d suggests lighter fare even as Barham\u2019s playfully rendered lyrics cut deeper and deeper: \u201cMost folks I know don\u2019t have a problem \/ Reaching out when they\u2019re in trouble \/ But I\u2019m the kind of guy that hits rock bottom \/ Laughs and asks you for a shovel.\u201d The brawny, Mellencamp-style heartland rock that shows up here finds an even stronger echo later on in the jaunty \u201cThe Luckier You Get,\u201d whose vocals-and-drums breakdowns offer a virtual \u201cJack And Diane\u201d homage. <\/p>\n
Barham further grounds his songs in his roots with numbers like \u201cBrightleaf + Burley\u201d\u2014an unstinting look at the lasting damage tobacco farming did to the South\u2014but saves his best lines for the sharply drawn anthem \u201cA Better South.\u201d \u201cDown here we\u2019re still fighting for all the wrong reasons \/ Old men still defend these monuments to treason,\u201d he sings, conveying both pride and shame, before reaching this conclusion: \u201cI\u2019m sick and tired of listening to Daddy\u2019s generation \/ The byproduct of war and segregation \/ Still thinking they can tell us what to do \/ Who can live where and who can love who \/ They say sing your songs boy and shut your mouth \/ But I believe in a better South.\u201d<\/p>\n
Interspersed with the heavier tunes on this well-paced album, Barham also delivers a pair of gorgeous classic-country ballads in \u201cThe Day I Learned To Lie To You\u201d and \u201cHow Wicked I Was,\u201d both drenched in regret and mournful piano and slide. Gospel-inflected set-closer \u201cThe Long Haul\u201d raises the roof with a stately anthem to commitment and determination. \u201cYou see the hardest part of getting sober \/ Is learning that a drinkin\u2019 buddy ain\u2019t the same thing as a friend \/ Just like the hardest part of starting over \/ Is admitting to yourself that something has come to an end.\u201d <\/p>\n
Lamentations<\/i> feels like a sort of culmination, a manifesto taking on everything that\u2019s gone wrong in America these last few years with a determined eye and plain-spoken honesty. It\u2019s not hard to see why Isbell gave this one a plug; it\u2019s clearly the work of a musical brother in arms, possessed of all the gifts and talent required to live up to that comparison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[10618],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-46088","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-american-aquarium","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46088"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46088"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}