In my experience, one of the common characteristics of people who are really, really good at something is that they\u2019re never completely satisfied. They always feel like maybe they could do better next time\u2014and then they put in the work.<\/p>\n
Over the last dozen years Jason Isbell has established himself as one of the finest songwriters alive today. His 2013 breakthrough album Southeastern<\/i> remains among the best of the millennium to date\u2014but he didn\u2019t stop with that getting-sober-and-figuring-a-few-things-out masterpiece; oh, hell no. Weathervanes<\/i> is his fourth album of original music since, and each has found him pushing his own limits, fighting to get even better, dig deeper, rock harder, and reveal even sharper and more devastating truths about both himself and the world he views through those penetrating blue-green eyes.<\/p>\n
The new album finds Isbell leaning as hard as ever on his crack band The 400 Unit\u2014Derry deBorja (keys and background vocals), Chad Gamble (drums), Jimbo Hart (bass), and Sadler Vaden (guitars and background vocals), with his Grammy-winning wife Amanda Shires again guesting on fiddle and background vocals. It\u2019s a genuine all-star lineup that gives Isbell\u2019s remarkable songs\u2014all framed within the big-tent genre of Americana \/ alt-country \/ Southern Rock\u2014that extra jolt of vibrancy and dimension they deserve. The main difference this time around is at the boards; for the first time in a decade Dave Cobb is absent, with Isbell stepping ably into the producer role he\u2019s filled in the past for others (notably Josh Ritter and American Aquarium). Isbell\u2019s production has more of a live, in-your-face feel than Cobb\u2019s typically airy, sculpted sound, and that ends up working well for this bracing set of songs.<\/p>\n
Opener \u201cDeath Wish\u201d carries emotional echoes of Southeastern<\/i>\u2019s \u201cElephant,\u201d another song about a man offering his help to a woman in distress who doesn\u2019t want it. Here Isbell frames his tale inside a complex arrangement with a lot of moving parts and a cadence that precisely balances melancholy and drive as it gathers momentum steadily until the background chorus migrates to the front in a round-robin chant that\u2019s positively hypnotic.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe used to make me feel like the King of Oklahoma \/ But nothin\u2019 makes me feel like much of nothin\u2019 anymore,\u201d sing Isbell on the dark-and-desperate rocker \u201cKing Of Oklahoma,\u201d a tune about opioid addiction and slim hopes for redemption that come crashing down at the searing guitar solo. Then \u201cStrawberry Woman\u201d opens with a clean-picked acoustic melody, a gentle song of devotion for the woman \u201csittin\u2019 next to me.\u201d Even here there are undercurrents, though: \u201cI may go stay out in the woods \/ Some time apart could do us good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alabama native Isbell\u2019s roots rise to the fore on the thrumming, Allman-esque \u201cMiddle Of The Morning,\u201d a bracingly authentic tune about the challenges of navigating married life. \u201cI know you\u2019re scared of me \/ I can see it in your smile \/ Like an unattended child you can\u2019t quite trust,\u201d he sings, soon realizing one of the sources of their problems: \u201cI was raised to be a strong and silent Southern man.\u201d The band\u2019s sharp ensemble playing ensures Isbell\u2019s penetrating lyric achieves maximum impact.<\/p>\n
Never one to shy away from the political\u2014Twitter users who tell the author of \u201cWhite Man\u2019s World\u201d to \u201cshut up and sing\u201d generally get their asses handed to them\u2014Isbell tackles the issue of gun violence head on in the harrowing, anthemic \u201cSave The World.\u201d Rippling electric chords and a four-on-the-floor rhythm section provide the sturdy foundation for a narrative that builds from reports of another school shooting into a headlong anthem giving voice to every parent\u2019s worst fears. <\/p>\n
Things quiet down momentarily for \u201cIf You Insist,\u201d a lilting number about lonely barflies considering their options, ultimately suggesting that loneliness can sometime be a choice you make. \u201cCast Iron Skillet\u201d dials things all the way back to acoustic, accordion and fiddle for a stunning story-song about interracial love in a small country town, a 3:24 tune that\u2019s the shortest here but may pack the hardest punch. <\/p>\n
In keeping with the surging-and-receding pattern of this well-paced hour of music, \u201cWhen We Were Close\u201d opens with big bruising electric chords introducing an elegy for a bandmate and party-buddy who drank and drugged himself to death, leaving a wife and young daughter behind. The question haunting the narrator is, why did I survive when you didn\u2019t? If you\u2019re thinking Isbell may be addressing an alternate-universe version of himself here, you\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n
The storytelling only grows deeper and richer as you go. \u201cVolunteer\u201d features Shires on a rambly mid-tempo acoustic number about an orphan who grew up in foster care and is still searching for connection. Then the electric blues \u201cVestavia Hills\u201d portrays an older musician watching a younger one make all the familiar mistakes\u2014\u201cThe boy genius is grown now \/ And you\u2019re an angry young man \/ Well I won\u2019t be around when you die in the van.\u201d The narrator is determined to tread a different path: \u201cThis run is my last one \/ I got to get off the road \/ Got to get my mind back in the family mode.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shires shines again on the thrummy acoustic-and-electric \u201cWhite Beretta,\u201d a tale that mixes regret and grace and guilt and love in a really beautiful and mature way; I think I know what it\u2019s about, but part of the beauty is how open to interpretation Isbell leaves it. Up next, \u201cThis Ain\u2019t It\u201d delivers big chunky classic-rock chords on a tune about an ex trying to convince his former girlfriend to leave her husband, even if it isn\u2019t for him; extended, dueling electric solos again feel like a nod to the brothers Allman.<\/p>\n
The album closes with \u201cMiles,\u201d a remarkable three-act song that spends its first half as a midtempo electric number about mourning the loss as your child grows up, until around 3:40 it transforms into a big, punchy rocker about how adults act out in reaction to life\u2019s frustrations. The latter falls back around 6:15 for a reprise of the former as Isbell laments the distance between parent and grown-up child and the fact that \u201cyou didn\u2019t even see the hand that turned the page.\u201d Oof.<\/p>\n
Weathervanes<\/i> is an album that arrives with big ambitions and immediately sets about fulfilling them. It\u2019s an album about the need to make change\u2014not just to experience it, or observe it, but to drive it, whether the change is in your head, your heart, your house, or your world. It\u2019s an album about searching for connection and hope, and about mistakes and regrets and forgiveness and grace. <\/p>\n
Every single song on Weathervanes<\/i> offers the listener entry into a pocket universe filled with novelistic character details, hard-won knowledge and urgent emotion, with the music calibrated to magnify and amplify the impact each tale delivers. This is either going to sound like a clich\u00e9 or an exaggeration, but I can only report the truth as I hear it: Jason Isbell is a damn poet. It\u2019s only June, and I\u2019m pretty sure I\u2019ve already heard the album of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10037],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-46660","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jason-isbell-and-the-400-unit","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46660","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=46660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46660"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}