On his third solo album, Drive-By Truckers’ front man Patterson Hood treats is to a dozen Alt/Country cuts full of downbeat characters, scarred and damaged by live and relationships. Good people, fighters, but loaded with baggage and weary of the world. Hard working, hard drinking and hard loving everyday folk. The warm summer wind that blows through the title track carries with it a cool air of melancholy.
There’s more than a touch of Bruce Springsteen about the gravelly, straight down the line hard times musing of single ‘Better off Without’ . ‘(untold pretties)’ is a spoken-word narrative that paints a picture of times gone by, the music remaining in the background ‘you can only carry hell around for so long before it gets to be a drag’, he opines sagely in conclusion.
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‘Come Back Little Star’ is a mournful duet, and while ‘Fifteen Days’ skips along to the finish, it doesn’t make the album as a whole any more uplifting.
The titles speak volumes about the tone of the material: ‘After the Damage’; ‘Betty Ford’; ‘Depression Era’. It’s not a good times record, that’s for sure. Not that there aren’t good times... but they all lie in the past or are weighted by reminiscences of friends who’ve moved on or fallen on hard times. Consequently, when Patterson does pick up the tempo he rarely lifts the mood.
Patterson Hood Online
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