The second Gov\u2019t Mule studio album in three years, Peace\u2026Like A River <\/i>is a companion to 2021\u2019s Heavy Load Blues<\/i>. Both albums were recorded at the same time, but in different studios, with each song being slotted to the album that fit the overall sonic theme better.<\/p>\n
Peace <\/i>is clearly the more ambitious and sprawling of the two; the 12 songs add up to about 76 minutes (a double album, for you vinyl fans), which puts the average song length around six minutes. Rather than punchy blues-rock or concise outings, the songs here twist and wind through different musical motifs, giving each song various sections that somehow tie together in the end. It\u2019s too much to digest in one sitting, but taken individually, each song is a Southern-fried adventure of its own. Don\u2019t like the current passage? Wait a minute and it will change; different drum beat, keyboard solo, melodic detour. There hasn\u2019t been an album like this in some time.<\/p>\n
To be sure, that\u2019s part of the intent; this band is indebted to classic rock, and listeners will easily hear elements of the Allman Brothers, Skynyrd, The Band, Neil Young, The Doors and Pink Floyd mixed into this stew. But Gov\u2019t Mule has long been its own entity, and Peace <\/i>shows no signs of slowing down or resting on its laurels. If you want the usual, Heavy Load <\/i>has you covered. If you want to take a trip, see something new, without knowing where you\u2019ll end up, Peace <\/i>is the platter for you.<\/p>\n
Special guest stars pop up here: Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, Billy Bob Thornton, Ivan Neville, Celisse), and everyone brings their A game. It\u2019s hard to pick a standout song because they\u2019re all solid, but \u201cDreaming Out Loud\u201d is an easy highlight, bringing funk, soul and horns to the jazz-rock jambalaya. \u201cMade My Peace\u201d is suitably epic, a nine-minute journey that sucks in the listener. Not surprisingly, the guitar workouts on \u201cShake Our Way Out\u201d between Gibbons and Warren Haynes are greasy and compelling.<\/p>\n
Really no duff tracks appear, though \u201cThe River Only Flows One Way\u201d goes for a swampy drone that is a bit much after seven minutes, despite the presence of horns to liven it up. But it\u2019s a noble experiment nonetheless, and anyway, once the keyboards and general Allman-ness of \u201cAfter The Storm\u201d kick in, you won\u2019t care anyway; special credit to Danny Louis on keyboards throughout, but here especially. The track closes with the Young-esque \u201cGone Too Long,\u201d a slowly confident track that runs just a bit long, but features Haynes\u2019 guitar in fine form.<\/p>\n
I guess if there\u2019s any knock on this disc, it\u2019s just a little too much of a good thing; a bit of tightening on the sprawling tracks and losing a couple of the weaker pieces would make this a bona fide classic. But it\u2019s still a very good album, one that may come from a blues-rock-Southern band, but reaches far beyond those genre trappings in its ambition and scope. It may take a few listens to really absorb, but Peace\u2026Like A River <\/i>is worth the effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":34815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6284],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-46679","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-govt-mule","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46679","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\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46679"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}