Exile on Trucker Street (review)

In case you missed it, here's the review I posted to BTR's website last week...

“And besides you’re a ghost to most before they notice that you ever had a hair or a hide.” – “A Ghost to Most” by Mike Cooley, Drive-By Truckers

Let me be among the first to lazily label Drive-By Truckers’ latest album their Exile on Main Street. Clocking in at 19 songs (!) and sharing the stylistic reach of the Stones’ volcanic mess, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark is the latest in an impressive stretch of career-defining albums. Coming less than two years after the somewhat underrated A Blessing and A Curse, the new album finds the band occasionally tinkering with their successful formula but mostly just adding to their already stellar (and steadily growing) discography.

Brighter Than Creation’s Dark finds the band (yet again) working with a slightly modified line-up in wake of Jason Isbell’s departure last year. Pedal steel and guitar wiz John Neff – himself an original member of DBT – rejoins as a full-fledged member, and Muscle Shoals legend Spooner Oldham contributes keys throughout. The influence of both musicians can be heard throughout (is that a piano solo on the opening track?), but those who miss the Truckers’ early country-ish side will in particular hail the return to prominence of the steel guitar, which lends more than just the occasional lick here and there. Unofficial sixth member David Barbe returns as producer and again seems to be entirely in lock-step with DBT’s creative ideas.

As usual, Patterson Hood’s songs provide the anchor to everything else on the album, and his contributions visit a whole host of topics and themes. From the tragedy of “Two Daughters and A Beautiful Wife” to the middle-class anxiety of “The Righteous Path” and the woozy paranoia of “You and Your Crystal Meth,” Hood proves yet again why he is among today’s most undestimated songwriting talents. “The Man I Shot” and “The Home Front” will garner some press ink for their references to the war in Iraq, and the band really underlines the former with a ferocious and tense performance. As usual, the Truckers provide the perfect vehicle for Hood’s songs and illustrate why this band is so much more than a conglomerate of gifted songwriters.

My personal theory is that Mike Cooley’s best songs all resemble “Dead Flowers” in some way or another. That is true here, at least in the case of “Self Destructive Zones,” which commemorates the blink-of-an-eye passing of the torch from hair bands to grunge and alternative rock. However, Cooley successfully revisits the country influences of his earliest DBT contributions on “Bob” and “Lisa’s Birthday”, turning in some of his best low-key tunes since “Panties In Your Purse” from Gangstabilly. And he saves his sharpest observations for the penultimate track “A Ghost To Most,” which manages to be deadpan without pulling any punches.

Bassist Shonna Tucker may not quite fill the void left by ex-husband Jason Isbell, but she may well be on her way. Her three songwriting and singing contributions cover a lot of territory, and “The Purgatory Line” boasts the most ambitious performance on the record, framing her voice only with keys and washes of pedal steel. It’s a move that few would expect from the Truckers, and that song in particular kicks off a string of songs that signal potential directions for the band in the future. Furthermore, Tucker’s backing vocals have acquired a whole new dimension, adding a ton a depth to the other performances on the album (see especially Hood’s stunning album-closer “Monument Valley").

If Creation’s Dark stops short of pursuing the tantalizing possibilities of “The Purgatory Line”, “You and Your Crystal Meth” and “Goode’s Field Road" (the latter of which should solidify those Exile on Main Street comparisons), it compensates with an unusually high quality of songwriting. If half of the album merely meets the high expectations of Trucker fans, who exactly is going to complain? Paring this record down to a dozen tracks or so, with emphasis on the moodier fare, might have been a bolder artistic move but would no doubt have left some excellent material in the vault. Though it lacks the conceptual heft of Southern Rock Opera or the thematic cohesion of The Dirty South, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark qualifies as DBT’s fifth knockout record in a row. That fact – to say nothing of their barn-burning live performances - makes them at least a contender for the title of The Best Damned Rock and Roll Band on the Planet.

(Brighter Than Creation’s Dark will be available from New West Records on January 22.)

UPDATE:  Other members of the church sing praises...

• Josh Hurst
• All Music Guide's Mark Deming
• Paste
• Houston Chronicle's Andrew Dansby (sharp, detailed review - but I told you I wouldn't be the only dude pulling that Exile reference out of his ass)
• Pitchfork:  "A tougher, smarter, funnier version of the prototypical alt-country gunslinger, Cooley's in rare wise-cracking form this time around, unspooling quick-witted, sin-soaked vignettes of colorful loners and losers that hearken back to DBT's pre-Southern Rock Opera incarnation as supreme underground redneck jokesters."

...while a few parishoners won't drink the Kool-aid (wholesale anyway):

• PopMatters

And an interview with Patterson Hood at Pitchfork.

Comments

[Chris in Oxford]

Well, I’m glad to hear that the new one is gonna be a good one. I was kind of worried about what would happen with Isbell’s departure. Sounds like they’ve hunkered down. Think I may pick this one up on the way home today.

[Babalugats]

I'm still trying to let this one grow on me so that I can be covered in the brilliant fungus that is apparently Brighter Than Creation's Dark, but I have to admit as of now...I still miss Isbell (and I feel like the rest of DBT do too). I think I'll just have to burn an .mp3 CD of songs from SOTD mixed in with BTCD for now - come to think of it, maybe I'll just do that from here on out.